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Marsha Norman

Marsha Norman Books

Playwright

Marsha Norman, born on September 21, 1947, is an accomplished American playwright known for her profound human and social themes. Her most famous work is 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?', which won her the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Her works include 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' and 'A Delicate Balance', among others, with 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' earning her the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Drama. 'A Delicate Balance' is a story about women during the American Civil War and has also received widespread acclaim. Norman's works have had a profound impact on contemporary theater, revealing the complexity of human nature and the diversity of society through her unique perspective and insightful observations.

'Night, Mother

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“Family is just accident, Jessie. It's nothing personal, hon. They don't mean to get on your nerves. They don't even mean to be your family, they just are.”

Book:'Night, Mother

Source: 'Night, Mother

“I loved that bridge he built over the creek in the back of the house. [...] Or that baby bed he built for Ricky. I told him he didn't have to spend so much time on it, but he said it had to last, and the thing ended up weighing two hundred pounds and I couldn't move it. I said, 'How long does a baby bed have to last, anyway?' But maybe he thought if it was strong enough, it might keep Ricky a baby.”

Babies Facts Of Life Parental Love

Book:'Night, Mother

Source: 'Night, Mother

“I hate milk. Coats your throat as bad as okra. Something just downright disgusting about it.”

Vegan Milk Dairy Okra

Book:'Night, Mother

Source: 'Night, Mother

“I have had an inordinate and painful concern for the audience in my writing career.”

Writing Careers Audience Concern Painful

Author:Marsha Norman

“We have to hear the stories of women at all ages of their lives in order to really present a picture of what it felt like to be alive in our time. That's what our job is as writers is to present that and create it. Our job as writers isn't to make as much money as we can. Our job is to create a record of this time. That's why if you leave out women and the stories of women, we failed at our mission. All of us. Men and women.”

Ifs Men Stories Age Jobs Order Felt Records Alive Men And Women Missions Our Time

Author:Marsha Norman

“I'm who I was waiting for. I didn't make it.”

Author:Marsha Norman

“Art is how a culture records its life, how it poses questions for the next generation and how it will be remembered.”

Art Culture Next Records Generations Art Is Remembered Next Generation

Author:Marsha Norman

“There is no point in trying to remember your dreams ... There is only the unspeakable joy of eavesdropping on your spirit, catching tiny glimpses of its independent life, resting for a moment in its wisdom, puzzling, laughing sometimes, over what it's up to, what it makes of you.”

Trying Sometimes Moments Dream Remember Joy Spirit Laughing Independent Tiny Your Dreams Glimpse Catching No Point Unspeakable Puzzling Eavesdropping No Point In Trying Independent Life

Author:Marsha Norman

“During the day, our souls gather their ... impressions of us, how our lives feel. ... Our spirits collect these impressions, keep them together, like wisps of smoke in a bag. Then, when we're asleep, our brains open up these bags of smoke ... and take a look.”

Feels Looks Soul Together Spirit Brain Our Lives Impression Smoke Bags Wisps

Author:Marsha Norman

“What's so good about a heaven where, one of these days, you're going to get your embarrassing old body back?”

Body Heaven These Days Embarrassing

Author:Marsha Norman

“on the whole the American theater, dominated by men, does not perceive women fighting for their lives as a central issue.”

Men Doe Whole Fighting Issues Theater Perceive

Author:Marsha Norman

“When you fight something long enough, it becomes a center pole right in your life and you count on it to be there to fight with.”

Long Enough Fighting

Author:Marsha Norman

“Success is always something that you have to recover from.”

Author:Marsha Norman

“Music expresses longing and love and joy better than any piece of dialogue you can ever write.”

Writing Joy Pieces And Love Longing Dialogue

Author:Marsha Norman

“People listen to music with cavemen ears: Is it a bird song or the call of a lion? The audience at a musical is dancing in their hearts.”

People Heart Song Audience Bird Ears Dancing Musical Lions Listening To Music Cavemen Bird Song

Author:Marsha Norman

“There are days when I think the National Endowment for the Arts should issue a quota system for the production of plays by women - especially when you realize women buy 70 percent of all theater tickets.”

Thinking Should Art Play Realizing Issues Percent Theater Productions Tickets Endowment Quota

Author:Marsha Norman

“If someone wants to say 'I love you' in a straight play, they say it, and then it's the other person's turn to talk. But in a song, you can sing about it for another three minutes. The musical form has that unique opportunity to express at length what joy really feels like.”

Ifs Want Feels Persons Play Form Joy Song Turns Three Opportunity Minutes Love You Unique Musical Length Say I Love You Unique Opportunities

Author:Marsha Norman

“At the heart of the failure of most plays is the inability to carry on a thoughtful conversation about your work with yourself.”

Heart Play Conversation Thoughtful Inability

Author:Marsha Norman

“I feel that I speak the musical language.”

Feels Speak Language Musical

Author:Marsha Norman

“In the theater, when people hear that you're writing a play, they want to know what it's all about, whether there's a role for them. You write it fairly quickly, and it becomes a group activity before you're really ready to have company.”

People Knows Want Writing Play Company Roles Groups Ready Activity Theater

Author:Marsha Norman

“My view is that musicals are love stories with great final scenes. It's just that simple. Musicals are also conflicts between two worlds. And by those criteria, 'The Color Purple' is actually exactly the kind of story that makes for a great musical. Yes, it's got hard stuff in it, but so does 'Les Miserables' and 'Phantom of the Opera.'”

World Kind Doe Two Hard Stories Stuff Simple Views Color Scene Conflict Finals Musical Love Story Opera Purple Criteria Phantoms Great Music Two Worlds

Author:Marsha Norman

“If I had not had music in my life, I would be the neurasthenic vision of the playwright.”

Ifs Would Be Vision Playwright

Author:Marsha Norman

“After I won the Pulitzer, there was this sense of, 'OK, that's enough for you. Now go away.' What I wanted was to keep writing, keep working. But no one would produce anything of mine they didn't think would be as big as ''night, Mother.'”

Thinking Writing Enough Bigs Would Be Wanted Mother Night Produce Mines Going Away Mother Night

Author:Marsha Norman

“I grew up at the piano, and I longed to write musicals.”

Writing Grew Grew Up Piano

Author:Marsha Norman

“When ''night, Mother' opened, I did not know how long it would be before I would have another show on Broadway.”

Knows Long Shows Would Be Mother Night Know How Broadway Mother Night

Author:Marsha Norman

“Jesus was a suicide, if you ask me.”

Ifs Asks Jesus Suicide Ask Me

Book:'Night, Mother

Source: 'Night, Mother

“Write about the thing that frightens you most.”

Author:Marsha Norman

“Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you.”

“People do think that if they avoid the truth, it might change to something better before they have to hear it.”

People Ifs Thinking Might Something Better

Author:Marsha Norman

“The theater is a communal event, like church. The playwright constructs a mass to be performed for a lot of people. She writes a prayer, which is really just the longings of one heart.”

People Writing Heart Church Prayer Events Mass Theater Longing Constructs Playwright

Author:Marsha Norman

“I'm just not having a very good time and I don't have any reason to think it'll get anything but worse. I'm tired. I'm hurt. I'm sad. I feel used.”

Thinking Feels Reason Used Hurt Tired Very Good Bored Good Times I'm Tired I'm Sad

Book:'Night, Mother

Source: 'Night, Mother

“Mama, I know you used to ride the bus. Riding the bus, and it’s hot and bumpy and crowded and too noisy, and more than anything else in the world, you wanna get off. And the only reason in the world you don’t get off is it’s still fifty blocks from where you’re going. Well, I can get off right now if I want to. Because even if I ride fifty more years and get off then, it’s still the same place when I step down to it. Whenever I feel like it, I can get off. Whenever I’ve had enough, it’s my stop. I’ve had enough.”

Ifs Knows World Want Feels Years Wells Stills I Can Reason Enough Used Steps Right Now Hot Block Bored Fifty Bus Riding Mama Crowded Had Enough Noisy

Author:Marsha Norman

“No. You can't. And I can't do anything either, about my life, to change it, make it better, make me feel better about it. Like it better, make it work. But I can stop it. Shut it down, turn it off like the radio when there's nothing on I want to listen to. It's all I really have that belongs to me and I'm going to say what happens to it. And it's going to stop. And I'm going to stop it. So. Let's just have a good time.”

Want Feels I Can Happens Turns Radio Bored Good Times Feel Better Having A Good Time Make Me Feel Better

Author:Marsha Norman

“Family is just accident.... They don't mean to get on your nerves. They don't even mean to be your family, they just are.”

Mean Family My Family Accidents Our Family Nerves Being Thankful Family Members About Family Lovely Family Family Ties Love Life And Family Cute Family

Book:'Night, Mother

Source: 'Night, Mother

“There are things that music can do that language could never do, that painting could never do, or sculpture. Music is capable of going directly to the source of the mystery. It doesn't have to explain it. It can simply celebrate it.”

Language Can Do Mystery Painting Source Music Is Capable Celebrate Sculpture

Author:Marsha Norman

“We are not afraid to look under the bed, or to wash the sheets; we know that life is messy. We know that somebody has to clean it up, and that only if it is cleaned up can we hope to start over, and get better.”

Ifs Knows Looks Life Is Bed Clean Get Better Not Afraid Sheets Starting Over Messy

Author:Marsha Norman

“Knowing is the most profound kind of love, giving someone the gift of knowledge about yourself.”

Giving Kind Knowing Love You Self Love Profound About Yourself Love Yourself Kinds Of Love

Author:Marsha Norman

About the Author

Born: September 21, 1947
Known for: Playwright
Quotes: 37

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Writing Ifs Feels Knows Musical People Play Theater Thinking Want

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People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

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