Tragedy is the greatest art form of all. It gives us the courage to continue with our life by exposing us to the pain of life. It is unsentimental, it takes us seriously as human beings, it is not condescending.… — Howard Barker Copy Share Image
“I wish I were not sensual... I wish I had not got from my mother, or my father was it, this need to grasp… — Howard Barker Copy Share Image
It is impossible – now, at this point in the long journey of human culture – to avoid the sense that pain is necessity; that it is neither accident, nor malformation, nor malice, nor misunderstanding, that it is integral to the human character both in its inflicting and in its suffering, this terrible sense Tragedy alone has articulated, and will… — Howard Barker Copy Share
When I write, I am not giving a lecture, I am speculating on behavior. Sometimes this is dangerous, but it should be. As I… — Howard Barker Copy Share Image
I am so far as I am aware not at all influenced by dramatists, expect for Shakespeare, who I have to say, it is… — Howard Barker Copy Share Image
“It's time we started taking our audiences more seriously, and stop telling them stories they can understand.” — Howard Barker Copy Share Image
I’ve often taken important classical, biblical or literary stories and interrogated them. I have tried to reinvigorate Lot by interpreting it differently. — Howard Barker Copy Share Image
I submit all my plays to the National Theatre for rejection. To assure myself I am seeing clearly. — Howard Barker Copy Share Image
I believe in poetic discourse, in the value of speech in a non-naturalistic way; it's speculative. — Howard Barker Copy Share Image
