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" I am drawn to characters so full of internal contradictions. Idi Amin was one. I loved writing him. "

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" 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. "

" As a European from a different, younger generation, the trauma that was Nixon's presidency never really had a hold over me. For one thing, I never voted for him. "

" It was so interesting to discover Nixon was a Californian. I always think Nixon should come from a cold place. "

" There's something about the soul of a country that is somehow connected to the head of state. "

" 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 don't want to become too self-conscious - it's why I never read reviews, even the good ones. "

" If you have distance from the events, then your story can work as an analogy or parable rather than its literal narrative. "

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

" I actually speak fluent German. And I live in Vienna, and I'm married to a Viennese woman. "

" You can be far more challenging, articulate and intelligent writing for television than you can writing for the cinema. "

" Ambition interests me because it's such a surefire indicator of damage. "

" There are people who are bound journalistically to a code of ethics that means they can't quote something that isn't sourced, whereas what I do is entirely unsourced. I effectively fictionalise history and yet somehow aim at a greater truth. "

" Sometimes you are lucky enough to get offered things, and there is no rhyme or reason. I am very lucky because I come from England, and you have a whole range of things offered to you, from television plays and shows and theatre, so much more to explore, so it's never really money. "

" In some shape or form, we do have an emotional connection to our head of state, even if, for the most part, they seem very remote. "

" I just feel that if I'm English and writing about an American president, I have got to have someone on my side who can help me out when I'm lapsing into lazy or obvious European skepticism. "

" 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. "

" Once I start writing about somebody, I become very protective of them. "

" There is something fantastically post-modern about David Frost. "

" I'm constantly having to check my conscience about what I'm writing and the responsibility of what I'm saying. "

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

" No family is complete without an embarrassing uncle. "

" The first and primary requirement for me in a director that I'd want to work with is: do they love writing, and do they love the collaboration process with writers? "

" I'm not being presumptuous, I hope, when I say that 'The Crown' is little bit like 'The Godfather.' It is essentially about a family in power and survival. "

" I'm not a vindictive person. But I do want to shine a light on human frailty and heroism in equal measure. "

" There were a couple of things I lost sleep over with the play 'Frost/Nixon,' so I went back and addressed them a bit more in the film. "

" 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. "

" Barack Obama winning the election had an instant impact on everything - race relations, national self-esteem, tolerance. It also had an instant affect on 'Frost/Nixon.' At a stroke, instead of being a piece that reminded people of the agony they were in, it became an uplifting message about the agony they had escaped. "

" My experience is, I do a table reading, and it's literally like it's written in colossal neon lights what's wrong with the screenplay. "

" There are so many projects that I've written and had to abort because either I felt too distressed by what I was doing to the people who I was writing about, or they couldn't cope with it because their view of themselves was so far removed from reality. "

" I'm very happy for others to engage in conjecture, but if I was ever conscious of what I'm thinking about when I'm writing, oh my God, I'd be totally lost. "