Quotes from Abi Morgan

The joy for me as a writer is that, despite the fact I spend most of my life on my own in a room eating too much chocolate and drinking too much tea, eventually they let me out into the world.

There is an invisible aspect of being a writer; none of it is about you. It's about your work, and that's what it should be.

I'm a writer of fiction. I try to write about my time, but it's dangerous if I'm seen as an investigative writer. I manipulate and change and control.

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

As a writer, you're not even at the party when you work in film. At best, you're the one laying out the canapes.

I still always think the greatest moment for me, as a writer, is when I press that button and send the first draft of the script.

I never get writer's block, but I do have days where I crawl under the duvet.

I think film and television - particularly film - you are very isolated as a writer. If you're lucky, you have a good relationship with the director. Then you do make that development and come on set and be part of something. But ultimately, your work is kind of done by the time you come on set.

I think that, as a writer, while it's your job to construct stories, you have to navigate your way through them with your heart.

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.

Now I would say I'm absolutely a feminist writer.

I know what it's like to be brought up by actors and writers.

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 understand the concept.

I got dumped off 'The Iron Lady' a month before they started shooting, and then they brought two new writers on. Then I was brought back on again. I'm just a bit of a rubber ball. I just bounce back.

Good writing is often about trying to investigate something you feel is missing and trying to put it back.

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.

I'm a woman, and I'm interested in writing stories from a female perspective.

I think theater is very much my natural home. But the truth is that the older I've got, and the more I've written film and television, I find it incredibly hard to write theater.

I wrote a play for Miu Miu called 'The Moment Is the Present, That's Why It's Called a Gift.' Instead of doing a catwalk show, all the actors wore the clothes and performed a 20-minute play.

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.

I think casting is everything. You get a great cast and - certainly, as happens in 'The Hour' - so many of those performances on the page were transformed by those actors who took those parts and made it into something completely different.

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.

Yes, I've heard of the 'Mad Men' comparisons, but I like to think 'The Hour' has its own distinctive voice. Although it is set in 1956, I have tried to give it a contemporary edge, and its themes of love, passion, romance, fury, professional jealousy, and personal failure are universal, I think.

I was never cool as a kid.