Edward Bond

“It's politely assumed that democracy is a means of containing and restraining violence. But violence comes not from genes but from ideas.”

“The human mind is a dramatic structure in itself and our society is absolutely saturated with drama.”

“It's insulting to ask a dramatist what his view of his play is. I have no opinion.”

“Violence is hidden within democratic structures because they are not radically democratic - Western democracy is merely a domestic convenience of consumerism.”

“We are still living in the aftershock of Hiroshima, people are still the scars of history.”

“I don't think it's the job of theatre at the moment to provide political propaganda; that would be simplistic. We have to explore our situation further before we will understand it.”

“Auschwitz is a place in which tragedy cannot occur.”

“First there was the theatre of people and animals, then of people and the devil. Now we need the theatre of people and people.”

“Art is the close scrutiny of reality and therefore I put on the stage only those things that I know happen in our society.”

“Fifteen years ago I walked out of a production of one of my plays at the RSC because I decided it was a waste of time.”

“Whatever the economy needs to maintain itself, the government will do it.”

“The English sent all their bores abroad, and acquired the Empire as a punishment.”

“Now, drama is quite useful at helping us to understand what our position is and, conversely, we might then understand why our theatre is being destroyed.”

“I'm interested in the real world.”

“All you now do is pursue your private objectives within society. Instead of us being a community, everybody is asked to seek their own personal ends. It's called competition. And competition is antagonism.”

“Violence is never a solution in my plays, just as ultimately violence is never a solution in human affairs.”

“We may seem competent, but by the end of next century there will be new deserts, new ruins.”

“But we are not in the world to be good but to change it.”

“I write plays not to make money, but to stop myself from going mad. Because it's my way of making the world rational to me.”

“It's wonderful to be able to sit down and write a play.”