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Pinter 'overwhelmed' by Nobel Prize win


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LONDON, Oct 13 (AFP) - British playwright Harold Pinter said Thursday he was "overwhelmed" to have been awarded the 2005 Nobel Prize for literature.

The 75-year-old collected the 10-million-kronor (1.1-million-euro, 1. 3-million-dollar) prize, the Swedish Academy announced earlier in Stockholm.

"I have written 29 plays and I think that's really enough," he told reporters outside his home in west London's plush Holland Park district.

Wearing a blue cap and aided by a walking stick, Pinter said he celebrated with a glass of champagne with his wife Lady Antonia Fraser.

"I think the world has had enough of my plays," he said.

"I shall certainly be writing more poetry and I'll certainly remain deeply engaged in the question of political structures in this world."

The versatile Pinter is renowned for his exploration of domination and submission, threat and injustice in his plays and for his increasingly vocal political activism.

The laureate "uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms", the Academy jury said.

He is also known for his campaigning against the US-led war in Iraq, notably calling British Prime Minister Tony Blair a "deluded idiot" and US President George W. Bush a "mass murderer".

"I've been writing plays for about 50 years and I'm also pretty politically engaged. And I'm not at all sure to what extent that fact, that fact had anything to do with this award," he added.

"I am both deeply engaged in art and deeply engaged in politics and sometimes those two meet and sometimes they don't. It's all going to be very interesting."

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