My Films Are About Embarrassment.

Clichés Can Be Quite Fun. That's How They Got To Be Clichés.

It Seems To Me The Mark Of A Civilized Society That Certain Privileges Should Be Taken For Granted Such As Education, Health Care And The Safety To Walk The Streets.

My Experience Came Before Most Of You Were Born. My School Was A State School In Leeds And The Headmaster Usually Sent Students To Leeds University But He Didn't Normally Send Them To Oxford Or Cambridge. But The Headmaster Happened To Have Been To Cambridge And Decided To Try And Push Some Of Us Towards Oxford And Cambridge. So, Half A Dozen Of Us Tried - Not All Of Us In History - And We All Eventually Got In. So, To That Extent, It [the History Boys] Comes Out Of My Own Experience.

I Write Plays About Things That I Can't Resolve In My Mind. I Try To Root Things Out.

At The Drabber Moments Of My Life (swilling Some Excrement From The Steps, For Instance, Or Rooting With A Bent Coat-hanger Down A Blocked Sink) Thoughts Occur Like 'i Bet Tom Stoppard Doesn't Have To Do This' Or There Is No Doubt David Hare Would Have Deputed This To An Underling.'