It’s a great mistake to pay any attention to them (critics). I think, you see, that this is an age of such overblown publicity and overemphatic pinning down. I’m a very good example of a writer who can write, but I’m not as good as all that. I’m just a writer; and I think that I’ve been overblown tremendously because there’s a dearth of really fine writing, and people tend to make too much of a meal. All you can do is try to write as well as you can.

dintr-un interviu minunat cu Harold Pinter (re)publicat in Paris Review

mai jos citeva intrebari si raspusuri frumoase.

INTERVIEWER

Why wasn’t there a character representing you in the play?

PINTER

I had—I have—nothing to say about myself, directly. I wouldn’t know where to begin. Particularly since I often look at myself in the mirror and say, “Who the hell’s that?”
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INTERVIEWER

Do you sense when you should bring down the curtain, or do you work the text consciously toward a moment you’ve already determined?

PINTER

It’s pure instinct. The curtain comes down when the rhythm seems right—when the action calls for a finish. I’m very fond of curtain lines, of doing them properly.

INTERVIEWER

Do you feel your plays are therefore structurally successful? That you’re able to communicate this instinct for rhythm to the play?

PINTER

No, not really, and that’s my main concern, to get the structure right. I always write three drafts, but you have to leave it eventually. There comes a point when you say, That’s it, I can’t do anything more. The only play that gets remotely near to a structural entity which satisfies me is The Homecoming. The Birthday Party and The Caretaker have too much writing. I want to iron it down, eliminate things. Too many words irritate me sometimes, but I can’t help them, they just seem to come out—out of the fellow’s mouth. I don’t really examine my works too much, but I’m aware that quite often in what I write, some fellow at some point says an awful lot.

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INTERVIEWER

The theater is a very competitive business. Are you, as a writer, conscious of competing against other playwrights?

PINTER

Good writing excites me, and makes life worth living. I’m never conscious of any competition going on here.

INTERVIEWER

Do you read things written about you?

PINTER

Yes. Most of the time I don’t know what they’re talking about; I don’t really read them all the way through. Or I read it and it goes—if you asked me what had been said, I would have very little idea. But there are exceptions, mainly nonprofessional critics.