“ My second play, The Birthday Party, I wrote in 1958 - or 1957. It was totally destroyed by the critics of the day, who called it an absolute load of rubbish. ”

“ Iraq is just a symbol of the attitude of western democracies to the rest of the world. ”

“ Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living. ”

“ I never think of myself as wise. I think of myself as possessing a critical intelligence which I intend to allow to operate. ”

“ I don't intend to simply go away and write my plays and be a good boy. I intend to remain an independent and political intelligence in my own right. ”

“ I found the offer of a knighthood something that I couldn't possibly accept. I found it to be somehow squalid, a knighthood. There's a relationship to government about knights. ”

“ Clinton's hands remain incredibly clean, don't they, and Tony Blair's smile remains as wide as ever. I view these guises with profound contempt. ”

“ I was brought up in the War. I was an adolescent in the Second World War. And I did witness in London a great deal of the Blitz. ”