Howard Barker's Quotes

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

I don't like sympathetic characters.

A good play puts the audience through a certain ordeal.

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

I'm not interested in entertainment.

I'm not interested in observed reality.

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

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

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.

Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.

A leader is a person you will follow to a place you wouldn't go by yourself.

When you drop any new idea in the pond of the world, you get a ripple effect. You have to be aware that you will be creating a cascade of change.

The past guarantees you nothing in the future if the rules change.

The ultimate function of prophecy is not to tell the future, but to make it. Your successful past will block your visions of the future.

Those who say, 'It can't be done,' are usually interrupted by others doing it.

Usually the first problems you solve with the new paradigm are the ones that were unsolvable with the old paradigm.

Your successful past will block your visions of the future.

The invention of the micro-loan was a big surprise to me. Who would have guessed loans of less than $20 made to poor people in undeveloped countries could create thriving local economies? And, even more surprisingly, that they more reliably pay off their debts than the wealthy of the world.