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.

Occasionally it does hit me, the words on a page. And I still love doing that, as I have for the last 60 years.

Most of the press is in league with government, or with the status quo.

One is and is not in the centre of the maelstrom of it all.

There is a movement to get an international criminal court in the world, voted for by hundreds of states-but with the noticeable absence of the United States of America.

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

The Companion of Honour I regarded as an award from the country for 50 years of work - which I thought was okay.

I also found being called Sir rather silly.

I tend to think that cricket is the greatest thing that God ever created on earth - certainly greater than sex, although sex isn't too bad either.

One way of looking at speech is to say it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.

If Milosevic is to be tried, he has to be tried by a proper court, an impartial, properly constituted court which has international respect.

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.

I think it is the responsibility of a citizen of any country to say what he thinks.

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

I could be a bit of a pain in the arse. Since I've come out of my cancer, I must say I intend to be even more of a pain in the arse.

All that happens is that the destruction of human beings - unless they're Americans - is called collateral damage.

It's so easy for propaganda to work, and dissent to be mocked.

There are some good rules and there are some lousy rules.

The past is what you remember, imagine you remember, convince yourself you remember, or pretend you remember.

The crimes of the U.S. throughout the world have been systematic, constant, clinical, remorseless, and fully documented but nobody talks about them.

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.

One's life has many compartments.

I ought not to speak about the dead because the dead are all over the place.

I mean, don't forget the earth's about five thousand million years old, at least. Who can afford to live in the past?

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.

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

I believe an international criminal court is very much to be desired.

While The United States is the most powerful nation the world has ever seen, it is also the most detested nation that the world has ever known.

Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living.

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 don't think there's been any writer like Samuel Beckett. He's unique. He was a most charming man and I used to send him my plays.

A short piece of work means as much to me as a long piece of work.

It was difficult being a conscientious objector in the 1940's, but I felt I had to stick to my guns.

I think that NATO is itself a war criminal.

This particular nurse said, Cancer cells are those which have forgotten how to die. I was so struck by this statement.

Beckett had an unerring light on things, which I much appreciated.

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.

The Room I wrote in 1957, and I was really gratified to find that it stood up. I didn't have to change a word.

Apart from the known and the unknown, what else is there?

There's a tradition in British intellectual life of mocking any non-political force that gets involved in politics, especially within the sphere of the arts and the theatre.

A few friends and me used to go and watch Bunuel, Carne, Cocteau... Cocteau and Bunuel were surrealism. And I was very excited by that. 'Un Chien Andalou', especially.

All I can say is that I did admire 'The Lives of Others', which I thought was really about something and beautifully done.

All I'm saying is that there are many different kinds of political theatre and many plays I greatly admire: 'Antigone,' 'Mother Courage,' 'All My Sons.' But, if I tackle a political theme, I have to do it in my own way.

Analysis I take to be a scientific procedure. What I do is creative. It doesn't spring from the same part of the mind.

Cricket, the whole thing, playing, watching, being part of the Gaieties, has been a central feature of my life.

Drama happens in big cricket matches. But also in small cricket matches.

George W. Bush is always protesting that he has the fate of the world in mind and bangs on about the 'freedom-loving peoples' he's seeking to protect. I'd love to meet a freedom-hating people.

I always start a play by calling the characters A, B, and C.

I am absolutely not saying that Milosevic might not be responsible for all sorts of atrocities, but I believe that what's been left out of public debate and the press is that there was a civil war going on there.