Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter CH CBEwas a Nobel Prize-winning English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party, The Homecoming, and Betrayal, each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others' works include The Servant, The Go-Between, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Trial, and Sleuth. He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth10 October 1930
It's so easy for propaganda to work, and dissent to be mocked.
I believe an international criminal court is very much to be desired.
It was difficult being a conscientious objector in the 1940's, but I felt I had to stick to my guns.
Most of the press is in league with government, or with the status quo.
I thought the plays would speak for themselves. But they didn't.
The Companion of Honour I regarded as an award from the country for 50 years of work - which I thought was okay.
I also found being called Sir rather silly.
I think that NATO is itself a war criminal.
Iraq is just a symbol of the attitude of western democracies to the rest of the world.
Clinton's hands remain incredibly clean, don't they, and Tony Blair's smile remains as wide as ever. I view these guises with profound contempt.
I know the place. It is true. Everything we do Corrects the space Between death and me And you.
When you lead a life of scholarship you can't be bothered with the humorous realities, you know, tits, that kind of thing.
The theater's much the most difficult kind of writing for me, the most naked kind, you're so entirely restricted.... I find myself stuck with these characters who are either sitting or standing, and they've either got to walk out of a door, or come in through a door, and that's about all they can do.
The Room I wrote in 1957, and I was really gratified to find that it stood up. I didn't have to change a word.