Howard Barker Quotes

I'm not interested in observed reality.

- Howard Barker

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

- Howard Barker

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.

- Howard Barker

A good play puts the audience through a certain ordeal.

- Howard Barker

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.

- Howard Barker

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

- Howard Barker

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

- Howard Barker

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.

- Howard Barker

I'm not interested in entertainment.

- Howard Barker

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

- 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.

- Howard Barker

I don't like sympathetic characters.

- Howard Barker

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

- Howard Barker