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
One is and is not in the centre of the maelstrom of it all.
If Milosevic is to be tried, he has to be tried by a proper court, an impartial, properly constituted court which has international respect.
I ought not to speak about the dead because the dead are all over the place.
One way of looking at speech is to say it is a constant stratagem to cover nakedness.
I think it is the responsibility of a citizen of any country to say what he thinks.
There's a tradition in British intellectual life of mocking any non-political force that gets involved in politics, especially within the sphere of the arts and the theatre.
I don't think there's been any writer like Samuel Beckett. He's unique. He was a most charming man and I used to send him my plays.
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.