Quotes from Patrick Marber

My life is in dialogue with the plays that I write. The relationship I have with my plays is very, very intimate, and I dot my life through them.

I'm a Jew. I think of myself as a Jew first and Englishman second.

I'm a Golden Globe nominee, yes. It's very nice. It's a very nice thing, but I kind of think of all the awards I wasn't ever nominated for, for years and things.

I mean when the play was on in New York I was starting to get film offers coming through, and since the film's come out I get offered more than I used to, but it happens incrementally.

It's one of the reasons I don't do drugs. One sniff and I'd go all the way.

Where is this love? I can't see it, I can't touch it. I can't feel it. I can hear it. I can hear some words, but I can't do anything with your easy words

The trite answer is that everything is true but none of it happened. It is emotionally true, but the events, the plotting, the narrative, isn't true of my life, though I've experienced most of the emotions experienced by the characters in the play.

But I think the thing I'm proud of about the film is that there aren't many films - either independent films or mainstream Hollywood films - that are like this; it's of its own times, and it's the film Mike Nichols wanted to make.

When I couldn't write, I felt like a zombie.

I like them all - I don't always approve. I see myself as a sort of benevolent uncle to these characters, and I can see why they do what they do; sometimes they make some mistakes, but at heart I think they're decent.

I hoped the dramatic power of the play would rest on that tension between elegant structure - the underlying plan is that you see the first and last meeting of every couple in the play - and inelegant emotion.

Always when I directed the play, I was always trying to cast people not who were necessarily like the characters, but people who I felt had the essential component that the character had, some kind of soul for it.

I think writing is a glorious and noble thing.

Well, you just know, as a writer, I didn't really write one of the five best screenplays of the year. There were lots of brilliant screenplays; I was just one of the lucky ones who got nominated.

But I'm the sort of person who, if certain structures topple, it could all go horribly wrong.

God, I remember when cappuccino was a delicacy.

I love this city. I love all cities. I'm in love with everyone and everything.

I don't discuss 'issues' with anyone. And it's a vile, infantile word, you'd be wise to eliminate it from your slim vocabulary.

You're better than this. Be with me. Be my wife, my love, my life. Share my wealth. Own my heart. Be my countess. You are tender, utterly sensuous, and in your own naughty way you are pure.

The trite answer is that everything is true but none of it happened. It is emotionally true, but the events, the plotting, the narrative, isn't true of my life, though I've experienced most of the emotions experienced by the characters in the play.

One feeds the other... The loneliness of writing makes the communality of directing more joyful, and interacting with lots of people in a high-pressure situation makes me long to be alone in my office again.

I'll be in therapy for the rest of my life – as long as I can afford it. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't benefit. Being able to talk to a stranger and tell them everything is of enormous value – creatively and emotionally.

When I look back I can't believe I was so stupid as to direct Dealer's Choice.

Enough people like me. Enough to let me sleep at night.