“I don't intend to simply go away and write my plays and be a good boy. I intend to remain an independent and political intelligence in my own right.”
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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.
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 never think of myself as wise. I think of myself as possessing a critical intelligence which I intend to allow to operate.
I found the offer of a knighthood something that I couldn't possibly accept. I found it to be somehow squalid, a knighthood. There's a relationship to government about knights.