Best 14 quotes of Howard Barker on MyQuotes

A good play puts the audience through a certain ordeal.

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.

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

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

I'm not interested in entertainment.

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

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

It is impossible - now, at this point in the long journey of human culture - to avoid the sense that pain is necessity; that it is neither accident, nor malformation, nor malice, nor misunderstanding, that it is integral to the human character both in its inflicting and in its suffering, this terrible sense Tragedy alone has articulated, and will continue to articulate, and in so doing, make beautiful...

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

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

Tragedy is the greatest art form of all. It gives us the courage to continue with our life by exposing us to the pain of life. It is unsentimental, it takes us seriously as human beings, it is not condescending. Paradoxically, by seeing pain we are made greater, it becomes a need.

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.

You emerge from tragedy equipped against lies. After the musical, you're anybody's fool