Howard Barker Quotes & Sayings

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

I wish I were not sensual... I wish I had not got from my mother, or my father was it, this need to grasp and be grasped, because it drives me into the arms of idiots who want to crush me. Wonderful, idiotic, crushing in the night. Can't you just crush me in the night? — 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 never 'say' anything in my work. I invent a world. Let others decide what is being 'said'. — Howard Barker

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

I don't like sympathetic characters. — 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 observed reality. — 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

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

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

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. — Howard Barker

The artist who makes himself accessible is self-destructive. — Howard Barker

I'm not interested in entertainment. — Howard Barker

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

A good play puts the audience through a certain ordeal. — Howard Barker