As a writer one is allowed to have conversations with oneself.
ALAN AYCKBOURNAs a writer one is allowed to have conversations with oneself.
ALAN AYCKBOURNWhat is considered sane in writers is made for the rest of the human race.
ALAN AYCKBOURNCustard pie humour is fairly universal, but at the other end, which I’m more interested in, there’s the humour that hovers on the darkness, that walks in the shadow of something else, not always that obvious.
ALAN AYCKBOURNSalad, I can’t bear salad. It grows while you’re eating it, you know.
ALAN AYCKBOURNPlays by Alan Ayckbourn have been attracting larger audiences in the regional theatres than those of Shakespeare.
ALAN AYCKBOURNThere are very few people on top of life, and the rest of us don’t like them very much.
ALAN AYCKBOURNWhat I find interesting is how close you can run the laughter along the seam of seriousness, and occasionally cross it, so that half the house genuinely doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
ALAN AYCKBOURNThe darker the subject, the more light you must try to shed on the matter. And vice versa.
ALAN AYCKBOURNIf you are flattering a woman, it pays to be a little more subtle.
ALAN AYCKBOURNCats names are more for human benefit. They give one a certain degree more confidence that the animal belongs to you.
ALAN AYCKBOURNSo as not to disturb me in my little nook behind the biography shelves.
ALAN AYCKBOURNI think of a plot, I think of an idea, and then I wonder, How can I get that onto the stage?.
ALAN AYCKBOURNFew women care to be laughed at and men not at all, except for large sums of money.
ALAN AYCKBOURNYou don’t have to bother with men, they believe any compliment automatically.
ALAN AYCKBOURNThere is a school of thought that believes that sleep is for the night. You appear to be out to disprove them.
ALAN AYCKBOURNA gentleman … sleeps at his work. That’s what work’s for. Why do you think they have the SILENCE notices in the library?
ALAN AYCKBOURN