Born in Manchester, Simon Stephens played bass guitar for Scottish art-punk band Country Teasers before becoming an award-winning playwright, establishing himself as one of the "in-yer-face" generation of writers in the 1990s. In 2006, he won his first Olivier award, for On the Shore of the Wide World. His 2009 play, Punk Rock, was nominated for a TMA award, transferring from Manchester's Royal Exchange to the Lyric Hammersmith, where Stephens is currently an artistic associate. In 2012, he adapted Ibsen's A Doll's House for the Young Vic, which later transferred to the West End. The same year, his adaptation of Mark Haddon's novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time premiered at the National Theatre, winning seven Olivier awards, including best new play. Stephens's latest work, Birdland, opens at the Royal Court, 3 April-31 May.

Exhibition: Germany Divided at the British Museum

This is a retrospective look at the work of the German neo-expressionist painter Georg Baselitz. I am a real lover of the culture of Germany. I think that, between about 1968 and 1990, there was vibrancy and vitality to German culture in all forms: great rock'n'roll music from bands such as Can, great films from film-makers like Werner Herzog, and it was in the painting world as well, with painters like Baselitz and, one of my favourite of all painters, Gerhard Richter. The Richter retrospective at Tate Modern was, for me, one of the cultural highlights of the last decade. I found it completely invigorating. It made me want to write and I'm hoping the Baselitz exhibition will do the same.

Music: Earl Sweatshirt

LA rapper Earl Sweatshirt is coming to London, which I'm looking forward to. He's a little potty-mouthed rapscallion, and I'm very fond of potty-mouthed rapscallions. I think swearing in any form is always exciting and his last album [Doris] was another of my recent highlights. It was exploratory and inventive and he manages, on the whole, to do the thing that distressingly few contemporary rappers manage, which is to avoid moronic misogyny. He can swear with such effortless grace. I look forward to being, by far, the oldest and most middle-class man in the audience. He has a sense of attrition, wit, melody and sonic inventiveness.

Podcast: United Rant Cast

I'm an ardent Manchester United fan and it's been a remarkable season for them. It's been dramatically compelling to watch David Moyes turn into something of a Greek tragedy – a lone figure at the heart of an empire that's crumbling around him. The guys who run the Rant Cast, Paul and Ed, have consistently commented with wit, intelligence and eloquence, giving a beautiful insight into the nature of contemporary football, and United in particular. Every week they offer me solace as Moyes manages to tear the legacy of Sir Alex Ferguson away from Old Trafford, piece by piece. Every Saturday morning, I have my breakfast, I have a shave and I listen to the Rant Cast. It makes me tremendously happy.

Theatre: Secret Theatre Company

I'm looking forward to the new show by Secret Theatre at the Lyric Hammersmith, Show 5. I've worked with Secret Theatre as an associate, but I've not been part of Show 5 at all. I know they're developing something rather spectacular. I think Secret Theatre has been a provocative and energising intervention into the London theatre scene. Some people really hate the stuff that Secret Theatre are doing, they hate it with an exciting vitriol, but I think there is something remarkably alive about their work. The fact that they are making a show which I will know nothing about is really thrilling.

TV: Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle

I watch very little television, apart from Match of the Day, but Stewart Lee's Comedy Vehicle has just returned [on BBC2] for a few weeks. Stewart Lee is one of our great moralists; he speaks about the world with a sense of humanity and dignity that is increasingly rare. And he's really, really funny. Both of us are middle-aged men and fathers, so we probably see the world from similar perspectives, but the formal imagination of his work, as well as the incision and the wit, is just breathtaking. I look forward to watching every single episode of that series, possibly more than once. His comedy is very angry, dark, searching and provocative, which is something that I really aspire to.

Dance: Sun by Hofesh Shechter at Sadler's Wells

I worked with Hofesh on Motortown at the Royal Court. We stayed in touch and we're now working together on a new show which we hope to open next year. He makes me think in different ways. As a playwright, the notion that it's possible to communicate graceful interpretations of what it is to be human without using language really energises me. I think it's very important for playwrights to investigate forms that aren't dependent on language. Choreography and theatre share so much: they're both time-based mediums, they're both theatrical, they both take place on a stage, but I think we can learn a lot from the fundamental differences between movement and language – I've certainly learned an awful lot from Hofesh.