Martin McDonagh

“There's no point in me meeting with a bunch of producers or studios, because I'll write my own scripts in my own time.”

“I never feel like a smug or a smart-alec film director, and there are plenty of those around.”

“I don't feel I have to defend myself for being English or for being Irish, because, in a way, I don't feel either. And, in another way, of course, I'm both.”

“The fact that ticket prices are way too expensive, and there's only one bunch of people going to see Broadway shows, is something I've never liked.”

“I've got a fondness for rabbits.”

“I'm not really into the fame side of things, so I'm very happy with making a film every four years or so.”

“I pick and choose what I want to do at any given time, and what not to do, importantly. My agents, I won't hear about any offers or options.”

“Ireland was an idyllic place for us as children. We had all these cousins and all this green countryside. Given what I've written about rural Ireland, my memories of it are all blue skies and endless play.”

“I never, ever drink while writing. Never have from the start, and I'm happy that I never have to. A lot of my stuff is plot-driven and mathematical, and I think you need a clean and sober mind to pin down the logistics of that.”

“I hope there's some kind of morality in all my work.”

“I realize that I am never going to grow up.”

“I won't work on anyone's else's script. I won't write for anyone else. I write my own stuff and make that when the time is right.”

“Theatre was an art form that I didn't really respect, and because I wanted to shake it up and do different things on stage, I was able to combine all the things I'd learnt through writing on my own.”

“Though it may not seem like it, I never try to write about a place, per se; it's always, first and last, about story. Story is everything. Story and a bit of attitude.”

“I can't stand up in front of people. It just fills me with horror.”

“Dublin people think they are the center of the world and the center of Ireland. And they don't realize that people have to leave Ireland to get work, and they look down on people who do.”

“Everything went perfectly on 'In Bruges.' It was constant warfare, but I won all the battles and was really happy working with the actors and everything on the film.”

“When I started out, I was very vociferously against theatre or what I saw theatre as being, so I tried to make my plays the opposite of that - something a bit more cinematic. I'm a film kid, so I'll never have the same love of theatre as I do of movies. It's just the way I was brought up.”

“I never lie in interviews.”

“I fell into the theatre because I felt I was doing it well, and I stuck to it for the same reason.”