Jack Thorne

Professions :

The stressful time is the blank page at the beginning. When you're starting to see things being made flesh, and you're able to respond to that flesh, that's really exciting.

beginning see you time

I wrote my first play because I wanted to try directing something, and I couldn't afford the rights - it was an adaptation of a book called 'The Wave' by Morton Rhue.

try wave play book

I'm not very articulate. I don't have that skill.

articulate skill very

I find small talk exhausting, and I don't like myself when I'm around people.

find small myself people

I am trying to write a play that is big and I feel represents me - that's my big ambition.

i-am feel me ambition

I can't do anything other than writing. I'm not very able, generally. If I'd not been a writer, I would probably be a very unsuccessful political adviser to someone or have worked for a council.

anything someone political writing

I think London is a bit sad, and I find it a bit overwhelming. There's a lot of quite unhappy people, and it's very goal-driven.

think sad unhappy people

I like working. But now I have a deal with my wife that I take a half-day off each week.

now like week wife

I don't really write with actors in mind; I write with characters and then hope desperately that we can get good actors to play those parts.

good hope mind play

My wife would probably tell you I'm quite a dark person all the time!

you wife dark time

When I was in my early twenties, I spent six months bedbound with a condition called Cholinergic Urticaria that basically means I'm allergic to heat, including my own body. It was bad.

own bad my-own body

When you write a script, you hope that people will give it life beyond the script.

you hope life people

I've just had a little boy, and my wife and I called him Elliott because 'E.T.' sort of saved my life because that film is absolutely about something being out there that's greater than yourself.

my-life yourself wife life

I tended to be the nerdy kid - stood at the back, watching other people having fun - I wasn't always necessarily a big part of the fun myself.

myself having-fun fun people

The thing about having a very young audience in the theatre is that sometimes they laugh at the bullying scenes. It's really interesting, what that means. It still confuses me slightly, you know; someone's getting quite brutally bullied on stage and people are laughing. I think it's very hard being young.

me you bullying people

At my school, when kids went into the army at 16, they didn't do it in a gung-ho, Tom Cruise, 'Born on the Fourth of July' way. They were generally - and I hope this doesn't offend them - the more vulnerable members of the class. They enlisted seeking family, and they didn't always find it.

family army hope school

They're odd beasts, musicals, but what I like about them is the way they allow windows into people's lives. When people sing, you get an opportunity to see a vulnerability, a glimpse of a life in a messed-up head.

you opportunity life people

I cook every night: it's part of the marriage pact.

cook every marriage night

Hanging out with Pierce Brosnan on the set of 'A Long Way Down' was quite an extraordinary thing to do. The interesting thing is, he never behaves like a star. He's a really nice man.

down man long way

Writing is one of those jobs that everyone has an opinion on. I don't think this is a bad thing.

bad think opinion writing

Alan Ayckbourn

Bonnie Greer

Annie Baker

August Wilson

August Strindberg

Athol Fugard