Wit & Attitude Quote by Patrick Marber

Self-skewering regret is a very British kind of flex, and Patrick Marber knows it. “When I look back I can’t believe I was so stupid as to direct Dealer’s Choice” reads like an offhand confession, but it’s also a calibrated act of authorship: he controls the narrative by making himself the punchline first. The line performs humility while quietly reminding you that there’s something worth regretting in the first place - a play substantial enough that the directing credit matters.

The specific intent feels twofold. On the surface, it’s a jab at overreach: the writer who thought he could (or should) also steer the production. Underneath, it’s an acknowledgment of how brutal theatre’s feedback loop can be. Direction isn’t an abstract role; it’s the daily, exposed business of taste, authority, and compromise. Calling himself “stupid” frames the decision as naive, not malicious - an error of ambition rather than ego.

Context matters because Dealer’s Choice is built on masculine performance: bluffing, reading tells, managing status around a table. Marber’s aside echoes that world. He’s treating his own career move like a bad hand he can’t believe he played, inviting us to see him as both gambler and mark. The subtext isn’t “I failed,” but “I learned how power actually works in rooms like this.” The joke lands because it’s self-critique with teeth: funny, defensive, and just honest enough to feel expensive.