“When I was a child, I did always feel that people were hiding things, and that they weren't expressing their true feelings. When adults are too complicated, and cover their emotions with layers of well-intentioned subterfuge, the child isn't seeing reality clearly enough and gets upset.” PeopleFeelsWellsChildrenEnoughFeelingsRealityEmotionSeeingAdultsComplicatedUpsetHidingLayersTrue FeelingsSubterfugeHiding Things Author:Wallace Shawn
“Children, I always think, are just putting on a performance of being naive and not understanding anything. I have worked with children in films, and they're treated as adults and they just drop the pretense of being children.” ThinkingChildrenFilmUnderstandingAdultsPerformancesTreatedNaivePretense Author:Wallace Shawn
“"The Fever" is a one-person play. I decided I would perform it myself, and I decided I would not perform it in theaters, because the character in the play says certain things that I meant.” PersonsPlayCharacterCertainDecidedTheaterFever Author:Wallace Shawn
“I started writing plays in around 1967, and at a certain point, I thought, 'I'm writing plays, I should learn about acting and what it is.' So I went to the HB Studio in New York, and I was there for about nine months.” ShouldWritingPlayCertainActingNew YorkMonthsStudiosNineNine Months Author:Wallace Shawn
“I grew up. I began to think the United States had some problems that really required the help of artistic people to solve. And I gave myself permission to be a writer instead of a civil servant.” PeopleThinkingStatesHelpingProblemUnitedUnited StatesGrewGrew UpSolveArtisticServantPermissionCivil Servants Author:Wallace Shawn
“My personal life is lived as 'me,' but my professional life is lived as other people. In other words, when I go to the office, I lie down, dream, and become 'someone else.' That's my job.” PeopleDreamJobsLife IsLyingOfficePersonal LifeProfessional Life Book:Essays Source: Essays
“The actor's role in the community is quite unlike anyone else's. Businessmen, for example, don't take their clothes off or cry in front of strangers in the course of their work. Actors do.” CoursesActorsCommunityRolesFrontsCryExampleClothesStrangerBusinessman Author:Wallace Shawn
“When I was first exposed to the films of Ingmar Bergman, I found them frank and disturbing portraits of the world we live in, but that was not something that displeased me. They were beautiful. I thought people would respond to my plays the way I responded to Bergman's films.” PeopleWorldWayFirstsPlayBeautifulFilmFoundExposedFrankPortraitsDisturbingBergman Author:Wallace Shawn
“There's nothing regular about my life at all, really. I don't keep a regular schedule and every day is different. It's all rather chaotic.” DifferentSchedulesChaotic Author:Wallace Shawn
“If I had even the tiniest scrap of advice to give to a young actor who was figuring out how to audition, I would say don't memorize the script The reality about auditions is that 98 percent of the results has to do with what you are, not with what you did in the audition.” IfsGivingRealityYoungActorsResultsAdvicePercentScriptsAuditionsScrapYoung Actors Author:Wallace Shawn