Harold Pinter

There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. The thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.

A writer's life is a most lonely life. It is a life of constant self-questioning, of constant doubt, of constant struggle.

I'm not a political writer. I'm a writer who writes about people. And people are political.

We have heard the words 'the American way of life' for so long that we have forgotten what they mean. They mean, in fact, the American way of death.

The more acute the experience, the less articulate its expression.

There are two silences. One when no word is spoken. The other when a torrent of language is employed.

The speech we hear is an indication of what we don't hear.

I tend to start with a very small image, a small idea, a small situation, and then it grows.

Language in art is a highly ambiguous matter.

I write plays because I'm interested in people, and I'm interested in the way they behave, and the way they speak.

The past is what you remember. The future is what you imagine. The present is what you do.

I'm a great believer in the power of the subconscious.

The more you try to pin something down, the more it wriggles away.

There is no such thing as a perfect play. There is no such thing as a perfect performance.

The writer's job is to be true to his own experience, and to his own vision.

I don't believe in messages. I believe in plays.

The truth is a very elusive thing.

I'm not interested in explaining things. I'm interested in presenting them.

The theatre is a place where anything can happen.

I'm not interested in realism. I'm interested in reality.