Peter Morgan

“No family is complete without an embarrassing uncle.”

“As historians write more and more histories, it's a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy that other historians read their histories and then make synthesis, and certain things just get forgotten and left out and neglected.”

“If you start to analyze what you do, it can paralyze you.”

“I have always cited the decision by director Stephen Frears to shoot 'Mrs. Henderson Presents' before my script of 'The Queen' as the reason for my taking the plunge as a playwright.”

“Generally, I read nonfiction. There's very little fiction that I enjoy enough to spend my time reading. I am generally a nonfiction guy.”

“For 'Frost/Nixon,' I had eight people who were present at those interviews - they were all in the room - and when I interviewed each of them, they had a totally different narrative of events, to the degree where you thought, 'Were you all really in the same room?'”

“You're either a person with a conscience, or you're not. I think I've got quite a fine conscience.”

“I quite like the idea - just as an abstract idea - of 12 people's collective life experience and wisdom being this formidable thing. People say juries can be led - I think 12 people from different backgrounds, different races, different genders, different ages, it's hard to hoodwink.”

“People bang on all the time about whether what I've done is the truth or not. Well, to me, history is just a series of elaborate fictions.”

“When I started writing the screenplay for 'The Queen,' about the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana, both Stephen Frears, the director, and Andy Harries, the producer, begged me not to put Tony Blair in it.”

“There are many, many things in my work that need redoing - never the structure.”

“In my peaceful moments, I yearn to write a bank heist like the one in 'Heat.'”

“Everything I write, I've written the first draft in Austria.”

“Every dramatist will tell you that they know deep down what happened in the course of making that film and to what degree they took steps that were convenient and to what degree they took steps in telling their story that were dishonest. You know in your heart of hearts.”

“People test movies within an inch of their life so that the entire audience experience is a uniform one.”

“For 'Frost/Nixon,' everyone I spoke to told the story their way. Even people in the room tell different versions. There's no one truth about what happened in those interviews, so I feel very relaxed about bringing my imagination to the piece. God knows everyone else has.”

“I am not a politics wonk. I like the idea of my writing reflecting more about who I am or other people.”

“I prefer my writing to do all the talking for me.”

“I don't think I'm an unhappy person. It's just an intensity, not a depressive thing. It's just not having enough layers of skin. It's exhausting.”

“I think I stumbled upon a voice people associate with me with 'The Deal.'”