I have so many ideas and things bouncing around in my head that I’ve been wanting to write for years, but there are only so many hours in the day. I have books in me; I have stories I need to tell, both fiction and nonfiction; I have projects I want to do that would take me in different directions.

It could really have an impact if I get it right. Something that will get the next generation to see there is a way to think about politics that is not just the way we've been habituated to do it. I care about that and I think I can do it.

I still don’t understand everything about the ribosome. I must say that the more lectures I give and the more questions that I get, the more thoughts they trigger. And also, we are now interested in the proto-ribosome, how life started. So we are trying to understand this and this really excites me, not just from the point of view of philosophy, we are trying to show it.

There is an even longer shot that I do propose to attempt even though its likely efficacy lies at the outer limits of probability. I am going to try to have my entire DNA “sequenced,” along with the genome of my tumor. ... So perhaps I will be able to contribute a little bit to enlarging the knowledge that will help future generations.

It will be great if the plays stay funny.

I took Nicole out to dinner for the first time on 19 October, 1991. After that, everything changed.

I took Nicole out to dinner for the first time on 19 October, 1991. After that, everything changed.

I’ve become fonder and fonder of Brian Friel and Faith Healer has sort of become my favourite play.

if you have never suffered from self-loathing, lucky you.

I stopped directing movies in the late Eighties because I believed I couldn’t be a playwright and a filmmaker.