Abi Morgan

“One of the things I think I can do in my lifetime is stop to remind myself that - and keep affirming that - women can sell movies.”

“I don't really read that many magazines; I'm more of a browser. I get 'Vanity Fair' quite often if I'm on a train.”

“Life experiences inherently change you as a writer. My sense of fury calmed down when I had children and found a loving partner.”

“If the world is in complete flux for me and life is falling apart, if I just manage to get myself in front of a computer or at my desk, it calms.”

“I literally grew up in drama. I used to watch drama - the catharsis of the play - then see drama at home.”

“I had a huge interior world as a kid: I'd sit on endless wet holidays in Cornwall playing with paper dolls.”

“I write an actual script rather quickly - a draft will take me two weeks - but I write a lot of drafts. My big thing is I don't re-read. When I write, I never re-read back. I'll send it, bec...”

“I think, in some ways, there's a point as a television writer that 'executive producer' is the natural credit you get, and it can be a vanity title, or you can make of it what you want.”

“Chaos is my natural habitat. I write about chaotic situations and about people finding their way through the chaos, the hope that you can find your way.”

“'The Iron Lady' is not a biopic. Phyllida Lloyd and Meryl Streep coined it 'King Lear for girls.'”

“To be honest, if I was going to have any kind of fantasy, be it left-wing or otherwise, it wouldn't involve Margaret Thatcher.”

“The notion of having your muse was not something that was built for women originally. That's not to say women don't have muses. I get muses in terms of actors or writers who inspire me, so I...”

“I didn't take into account the critical tsunami that comes with having work going out. I've gone from being a complete narcissist, someone who googles my own name, to someone who has to work...”

“'Splendour' broke through to new territory for me. It exposed my commitment to writing for women: my desire to recognise that they can be as aggressive, violent, mercurial, and complex as me...”

“Journalism and the news has become not only a means to debate but also to judge and deconstruct celebrity, the news story, and the emotional lives of political people.”

“I always felt a bit of a nerd, but my family gets me and my oddities. My kids and partner are way cooler than I am, but they let me in the room with them.”

“I work from about 8:30 A.M. until 7 P.M., five days a week, when I'm not sneaking off to buy another bar of chocolate.”

“I always say writing a play is like toothache: I find it incredibly painful, and it's only once the play's out that the pain is gone.”