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" I can't relax when I'm watching a biographical drama because it's so close to what it is that I do that I just long for more fiction - so that I can switch off. "
Peter Morgan
Drama
Watching
Relax
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" I do have an innate understanding of where a story should or shouldn't go, in a way that I don't think can be taught. "
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" The irony of what I do is that the more you reveal someone in their frailties and shortcomings, the more we feel drawn to them and forgiving we feel of them. "
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" Some of the things I have written about are a way of connecting with my father - I know he knew who Idi Amin was, and I know he knew who Longford was. And I know he knew who Nixon was, because shortly before he died, I talked to him about Watergate. "
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" I'm quick to be upset. My feelings are close to the surface. There is not much gap between a thought and a feeling with me. It makes it difficult for some people. I feel too much. "
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Thought
Feeling
Feelings
" The real beauty in my professional experience has been friendships and collaborations with filmmakers. "
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Professional
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" I've done a lot of work in Hollywood and theatre, but to be honest, the biggest pleasure I've ever got is from the TV single plays I've written. It's a format where you don't mind saying, 'I want to tackle some important themes head on.' "
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Saying
Mind
Done
" 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. "
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Lost
Writing
Thinking
" As any showrunner will tell you, it is crushing work. It is around the clock. It is like a monastic commitment that you make. "
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Clock
Will
Work
" If you think about what you do, if you become self-conscious about it, you've got to be very careful. Because I really like to write without self-awareness of what I'm doing. "
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Like
Self-Awareness
Think
" 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. "
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Experience
People
Think
" 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?' "
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Present
Events
People
" 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. "
Peter Morgan
Him
Generation
Trauma
" As a dramatist, you have 200 choices at every fork in the road. But the audience will reject it if you make the wrong choice, if they feel you are trying to shape the character in a way that suits you. It rings false immediately. People can sense when you're being cynical or schematic. "
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People
Road
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" 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. "
Peter Morgan
Reason
Shoot
Always
" 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. "
Peter Morgan
Who
People
History
" 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. "
Peter Morgan
Money
Lucky
Enough
" Most historians are engaged in fiction. "
Peter Morgan
Engaged
Fiction
Historians
" You can be far more challenging, articulate and intelligent writing for television than you can writing for the cinema. "
Peter Morgan
Cinema
You
Writing
" For a younger generation to imagine a time where there was no security at airports - going around the world in the bar of a jumbo jet, 'Tell the plane to wait, I'm running late!' - there is something very Austin Powers about David Frost, a man who, in all seriousness, would approach women in a safari suit, with sideburns. "
Peter Morgan
Man
Generation
World
" I'm not a vindictive person. But I do want to shine a light on human frailty and heroism in equal measure. "
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Heroism
Want
Light
" It was so interesting to discover Nixon was a Californian. I always think Nixon should come from a cold place. "
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Interesting
Cold
Think
" I wrote 'Hereafter' quickly and without mapping it out too much or being too schematic. As an exercise, I think that was incredibly important. "
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Exercise
Think
Important
" 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. "
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Shape
Connection
Head
" If you have distance from the events, then your story can work as an analogy or parable rather than its literal narrative. "
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Work
Story
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" The minute you become a leader of a country, you go into a very small club. You join that sort of pantheon of other world leaders. "
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Club
Country
Leader
" It's important to me what the viewers think. "
Peter Morgan
Think
Important
Viewers
" Generally, I read nonfiction. There's very little fiction that I enjoy enough to spend my time reading. I am generally a nonfiction guy. "
Peter Morgan
Enough
Guy
I Am
" 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. "
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Truth
Story
People
" The film 'The Queen' came about with a producer saying to me that he wanted me to write about the circumstances behind Diana's death. I think he was hoping that I would come up with some journalistic scoop that would identify an MI5 covert plot. "
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Think
Saying
Queen
" I have a great deal of compassion for those in public life and what we have done to them. "
Peter Morgan
Great
Life
Compassion