Skylight Quotes

“You give them an environment where they feel they can grow. But also make bloody sure you challenge them. You make sure they realise learning is hard. Because if you don’t, if you only make it a safe haven, if it’s all clap-happy, and ‘everything the kids do is great’, then what are you creating? Emotional toffees, who’ve actually learnt nothing, but who then have to go back and face the real world … Find that balance, it stretches you, it stretches you as far as you’ll go.”
― David Hare, Skylight

“If you like judging, please: be a lawyer. Run a dog show. There’s a whole lot of jobs if judging is your passion in life. But take my advice: if you want to be happy, keep your judging professional. And don’t start putting in practice at home.”
― David Hare, Skylight

“I’m tired of these sophistries. I’m tired of these right-wing fuckers. They wouldn’t lift a finger themselves. They work contentedly in offices and banks. Yet now they sit pontificating in parliament, in papers, impugning our motives, questioning our judgements. And why? Because they themselves need to feel better by putting down everyone whose work is so much harder than theirs. You only have to say the words ‘social worker’…’probation officer’ … ‘counsellor’ … for everyone in this country to sneer. Do you know what social workers do? Every day? They try and clear out society’s drains. They clear out the rubbish. They do what no one else is doing, what no one else is willing to do. And for that, oh Christ, do we thank them? No, we take our own rotten consciences, wipe them all over the social worker’s face, and say ‘if…’ FUCK! ‘if I did the job, then of course if I did it…oh no, excuse me, I wouldn’t do it like that…’ Well I say: ‘OK, then, fucking do it, journalist. Politician, talk to the addicts. Hold families together. Stop the kids from stealing in the streets. Deal with couples who beat each other up. You fucking try it, why not? Since you’re so full of advice. Sure, come and join us. This work is one big casino. By all means. Anyone can play. But there’s only one rule. You can’t play for nothing. You have to buy some chips to sit at the table. And if you won’t pay with your own time…with your own effort…then I’m sorry. Fuck
off!”
― David Hare, Skylight

“I love you, for God’s sake. I still love you. I loved you more than anyone on earth. But I’ll never trust you, after what happened. It’s what Alice said. You’ll never grow up. There is no peace in you.”
― David Hare, Skylight

“I had a couple of restaurants, nothing too grand. But I’d already worked out – I’m not an idiot – you either run money or else it runs you. If you keep your money … if you’re frightened to spend it, you become its prisoner. OK, sure, when you’re making it, be as mean as you like. But when you spend it, just give. Give. Show your contempt for it.”
― David Hare, Skylight

“the world was created this morning. No such thing as the past …”
― David Hare, Skylight

“Edward   Once they’re dead, I find they keep changing. You think you’ve got hold of them. And it’s like you say, ‘Oh I see. So that’s what she was like.’ But then they change again in your memory. It drives you crazy. Now I’d like to find out just who she was.”
― David Hare, Skylight

“Kyra: I always felt profoundly at peace. I don’t know why, it still seems true to me: if you have a love, which for any reason you can’t talk about, your heart is with someone you can’t admit - not to a single soul except for the person involved - then for me, well, I have to say, that’s love at its purest. For as long as it lasts, it’s this astonishing achievement. Because it’s always a relationship founded in trust.

Tom: It seems mad to me.”
― David Hare, Skylight

“Toby. - You know Alice. She got hold of this bloody word ‘spiritual’. It’s one of those words I’ve never quite understood. I mean, I’ve always hated the way people use it. They use it to try and bump themselves up. ‘Oh I’ve had a spiritual experience,’ they say …
Kyra. - Yes.
Toby. - As if that’s the end of the argument. ‘Spiritual’, meaning: ‘It’s mine and shove off.’ People use it to prove they’re sensitive. They want it to dignify quite ordinary things.
Religion. Now, that is something different. I like religion. Because religion has rules. It’s based on something which actually occurred. There are things to believe in. And what’s more, what makes it worth following – not that I do, mind you – there’s some expectation of how you’re meant to behave. But ‘spiritual’ … well, it’s all wishy-washy. It means, ‘Well, for me, for me this is terribly important, but I’m fucked if I can really say why …”
― David Hare, Skylight

“We had six years of happiness. And it was you who had to spoil it. With you, when something is right, it’s never enough. You don’t value happiness. You don’t even realize. Because you always want more. (She”
― David Hare, Skylight