Quotes by Nicholas Hytner

“With an artist like Mike Leigh, you give him what he wants. Im thrilled. ... I think its an absolutely brilliant family drama.”

“Mike was a little nervous ... We werent, because his reputation is so immense.”

“There is a new climate of religious intolerance in Britain. Whatever the government says, this new bill is pandering to that intolerance.”

“They are all kind of the same letter, all handwritten or typed. They all assume that the play is about Pauls being homosexual and misogynist; they assume its going to be a prurient hatchet job.”

“They have been working on it for the past nine months and I have been absolutely thrilled by the stuff they have been producing together.”

“I think there would have been a time when the basic history would have been common knowledge. You could have been certain that when the king comes on at the beginning -- So shaken as we are, so wan with care -- they know hes wan with care because the countrys been in a state of perpetual civil war since he deposed the previous king, Richard II.”

“I had a guess what it might be about, but this took me completely by surprise. And he delivers a play, as he puts it, before he truly knows what its about. He wants a conversation about what it is that appears to be working, and where it is he appears to be going. Until hes got to that point, nobody knows about it.”

“Its almost as if hes challenging you and himself to go further with the stuff that may be the most painful to write. The relationship between Irwin and [student] Dakin was there, but it is written with much greater daring.”

“That would be doing to our audience and our repertoire what Im moaning about.”

“Even in rehearsals, I didnt realize it would be as popular as it proved. After I read it, I said: Its brilliant, but its quite esoteric. We scheduled 70 or 80 performances.”