Quotes from Harold Pinter

what are you but a corpse waiting to be washed?

You are in no man's land. Which never moves, which never changes, which never grows older, but remains forever, icy and silent.

JERRY: I was best man at your wedding. I saw you in white. I watched you glide by in white. EMMA: I wasn't in white. JERRY: You know what should have happened? EMMA: What? JERRY: I should have had you, in your white, before the wedding. I should have blackened you, in your white wedding dress, blackened you in your bridal dress, before ushering you into your wedding, as your best man.

But death permits you To arrange your hours While he sucks the honey From your lovely flowers

If you have only one of something you can't say it's the best of anything.

RUTH: If you take the glass…I'll take you.

Stan, don't let them tell you what to do!

I can't believe that what anyone is at this moment saying has ever happened has never happened. Nothing has ever happened. Nothing. This is the only thing that has ever happened.

There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.

The effect of depleted uranium, used by America in the Gulf War, is never referred to.

It's so easy for propaganda to work, and dissent to be mocked.

The Companion of Honour I regarded as an award from the country for 50 years of work - which I thought was okay.

It was difficult being a conscientious objector in the 1940's, but I felt I had to stick to my guns.

No one wanted me to be a conscientious objector. My parents certainly didn't want it. My teacher and mentor, Joe Brearley, didn't want it. My friends didn't want it. I was alone.

A short piece of work means as much to me as a long piece of work.

It's such a delicate business, the structure of film, isn't it? What happens if a scene is not there but two minutes later? It's an eternal, never-ending search, actually, which is very exciting. It really is.

I ought not to speak about the dead because the dead are all over the place.

I think plays have nothing to do with one's own personal life. Not in my experience, anyway. The stuff of drama has to do, not with your subject matter, anyway, but with how you treat it. Drama includes pain, loss, regret - that's what drama is about!

I don't write with any audience in mind. I just write. I take a chance on the audience. That's what I did originally, and I think it's worked--in the sense that I find there is an audience.

I certainly feel sad about the alienation from my son.

Beckett had an unerring light on things, which I much appreciated.

This particular nurse said, Cancer cells are those which have forgotten how to die. I was so struck by this statement.

I know the place. It is true. Everything we do Corrects the space Between death and me And you.

The more acute the experience, the less articulate its expression.