And I admit it: there's a rather dirty thrill when 700 people laugh at a joke you've written.

Your plays are always personal. You can't help seeing yourself in the serial killer you've just written. But they get less specifically personal.

When you slip on a banana peel, people laugh at you; but when you tell people you slipped on a banana peel, it's your laugh. So you become the hero rather than the victim of the joke.

I don't like writing with real people in mind.

Happiness is a big joke; let us laugh at it loud.

I was the family alien. Both my parents are quite creative, but I was... appalling... always putting on little shows. I was rather a shy child, not a natural performer, but there was a performative edge to everything I did.