Howard Barker
Howard Barker
Howard Barker is a British playwright...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth28 June 1946
certainly help improve others reasons regard social society understand work
Certainly I never write for utilitarian reasons - to help others understand issues, to improve society and so on. I regard those as fatuous pretexts. Let us keep social work out of the theatre.
best compelled explored frequently talk time written
I am compelled to write because I have an artist's personality, it is a psychologically-determined thing, one best not explored perhaps. But I write because I must. And frequently I do not know what I am writing, and can talk of what I've written only a long time afterwards.
artist self self-destructive
The artist who makes himself accessible is self-destructive.
beautiful pain character
It is impossible – now, at this point in the long journey of human culture – to avoid the sense that pain is necessity; that it is neither accident, nor malformation, nor malice, nor misunderstanding, that it is integral to the human character both in its inflicting and in its suffering, this terrible sense Tragedy alone has articulated, and will continue to articulate, and in so doing, make beautiful…
lying musical tragedy
You emerge from tragedy equipped against lies. After the musical, you're anybody's fool
play certain ordeals
A good play puts the audience through a certain ordeal,
taken biblical important
I’ve often taken important classical, biblical or literary stories and interrogated them. I have tried to reinvigorate Lot by interpreting it differently.
play rejection theatre
I submit all my plays to the National Theatre for rejection. To assure myself I am seeing clearly.
believe speech way
I believe in poetic discourse, in the value of speech in a non-naturalistic way; it's speculative.
art pain giving
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.
views political prejudice
I have plenty of political views and plenty of social and personal prejudices. I do not, however, value them.
entertainment not-interested
I'm not interested in entertainment.
reality not-interested
I'm not interested in observed reality.
character anxiety achievement
Theatre should be a taxing experience: the greatest achievement of a writer is to produce a character who creates anxiety.