Howard Barker

I've often taken important classical, biblical or literary stories and interrogated them. I have tried to reinvigorate Lot by interpreting it differently.

I'm not interested in entertainment.

A good play puts the audience through a certain ordeal.

I don't like sympathetic characters.

I am so far as I am aware not at all influenced by dramatists, expect for Shakespeare, who I have to say, it is impossible not to be influenced by if you hold language to be the major element of theatre.

Theatre should be a taxing experience: the greatest achievement of a writer is to produce a character who creates anxiety.

I'm not interested in observed reality.

I submit all my plays to the National Theatre for rejection. To assure myself I am seeing clearly.

I never 'say' anything in my work. I invent a world. Let others decide what is being 'said'.

I believe in poetic discourse, in the value of speech in a non-naturalistic way; it's speculative.

We are suffocated by writers who want to enlighten us with their truths. For me, the theatre is beautiful because it is a secret, and secrets seduce us, we all want to share secrets.

When I write, I am not giving a lecture, I am speculating on behavior. Sometimes this is dangerous, but it should be. As I say often, theatre is a dark place and we should keep the light out of it.

I have plenty of political views and plenty of social and personal prejudices. I do not, however, value them.