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

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" If you don't belong somewhere, that outsider status you have gives you perspective. Of course, another word for outsider is 'exile,' and that's not fun at all. "

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

" It is devastating, losing a parent. I don't really know what the effect is, but I suppose people might call me an ambitious man, and I'd say that an ambitious man is a damaged man. "

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

" 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. "

" Robert Bolt's storytelling is the kind that I grew up with and aspired to. "

" 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. "

" I prefer my writing to do all the talking for me. "

" 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. "

" Truth is an illusory notion. "

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

" The real beauty in my professional experience has been friendships and collaborations with filmmakers. "

" I'm not good at fantasy, no. I have been offered stuff, and I can't get my head around it. "

" In my peaceful moments, I yearn to write a bank heist like the one in 'Heat.' "

" There is no inherent contradiction between being right-wing and being intelligent. "

" I have no directing ambition whatsoever. And as long as I meet filmmakers like Tom Hooper, Stephen Frears, and others who allow that collaboration, I can't see why I would ever want to direct. "

" 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. "

" I make a point of not reading reviews because of the old adage, if you read the good ones then you have to read the bad ones, and if you read the bad ones, you have to, you know... And also because it's a very, very bewildering and exposing thing. "

" I can't help slightly falling in love with every character I write about. And I quite like writing about people who are vilified. "

" I don't think of the crown as this glamorous thing. It's this murderous, bejeweled thing, the crown. "

" You're either a person with a conscience, or you're not. I think I've got quite a fine conscience. "

" 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. "

" I don't understand and don't enjoy sci-fi, and it's just that if people aren't real, and they don't live in a real and recognizable society, I don't understand what to do. "

" 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. "

" 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.' "

" Nixon had lists upon lists upon lists. They were tragic lists saying, 'Smile more,' or, 'Be stronger - remember, it is your job to spiritually uplift the nation.' This understanding of his limitations is heartbreaking. "

" 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. "

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

" 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?' "

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