I don’t care more about ’13’ because it’s in the Olivier than I did about ‘Cock’ in a 100-seat studio. They both matter because it’s still a person sat there watching your play. And the play has to be good enough – because there are a hundred other writers out there who deserve to have their play on instead. Mike Bartlett Read Quote
When I was nine, I found a copy of ‘Doctor Who: the Making of a Television Series’ in the school library. It had a picture of Peter Davison on the front, and it was a formative book for me. It explained all the different departments like the script, cameras, and sets and explained how a television show is put together. Mike Bartlett Read Quote
I don’t think anyone is boring, actually, if you ask the right questions and look at them the right way. Mike Bartlett Read Quote
That’s the moment you look for as a writer, when the characters start telling you what they are doing rather than you telling them. Mike Bartlett Read Quote
What I’ve found is if you get the right characters in the right story and put them in the right setting – and let them go – they tend to do all the exploring of the issues for you. Because people are interesting and political and funny and sad. Mike Bartlett Read Quote
What’s great about theater and drama is it thrives on dialogue, and dialogue thrives on people with different points of view fighting for what they want. Mike Bartlett Read Quote
When I can find a story that explores something that I don’t know what I think, I’ve got a play. If I knew the answer, I would write a speech or an essay. Mike Bartlett Read Quote
I wrote a very bad play about Prince William when I was 23 in which he went off to the island of Iona to discover himself. It was very long, and audiences should probably be very pleased that the computer it was on blew up. Mike Bartlett Read Quote
You go to a protest, and you’ve got all these different groups saying things you don’t necessarily agree with. If I went to a protest, my placard would have to be very long, explaining the ins and outs of my position. Mike Bartlett Read Quote
When I got to university, I would read plays and go, ‘But these are about the past. Where are the plays that I love about now?’ I couldn’t find them, so I started writing. Mike Bartlett Read Quote
