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Quote by Edward Albee

“I usually think about a play anywhere from six months to a year and a half before I sit down to write it out.”

Quote by Edward Albee

Book:Conversations with Edward Albee

Work

Conversations with Edward Albee

This book features in-depth conversations with Edward Albee, delving into his thoughts on theater, writing, and life. The discussions provide insights into Albee's creative process and the evolution of his work. more

Author

American playwright, known for his unique dramatic style and profound exploration of modern family relationships. Edward Albee's works often involve complex interpersonal relationships and moral dilemmas, and his plays hold a significant place in 20th-century American theater. more

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“True, I don't begin with an idea for a play - a thesis, in other words, to construct the play around. But I know a good deal about the nature of the characters. I know a great deal about their environment. And I more or less know what is going to happen in the play.”

Knows Ideas Play Character Happens Deals Environment Constructs Thesis

Book:Conversations with Edward Albee

Source: Conversations with Edward Albee

“Usually, the way I write is to sit down at a typewriter after that year or so of what passes for thinking, and I write a first draft quite rapidly. Read it over. Make a few pencil corrections, where I think I've got the rhythms wrong in the speeches, for example, and then retype the whole thing. And in the retyping I discover that maybe one or two more speeches will come in. One or two more things will happen, but not much.”

Thinking Way Writing Years Firsts Two Whole Happens Example Speech Rhythm Pencils Corrections Typewriters

Author:Edward Albee

“I discover that I am thinking about a play, which is the first awareness I have that a new play is forming. When I'm aware of the play forming in my head, it's already at a certain degree in development.”

Thinking Firsts Play Certain Awareness Development Degrees

Book:Conversations with Edward Albee

Source: Conversations with Edward Albee

“I think I sit down to the typewriter when it's time to sit down to the typewriter. That isn't to suggest that when I do finally sit down at the typewriter, and write out my plays with a speed that seems to horrify all my detractors and half of my well-wishers, that there's no work involved. It is hard work, and one is doing all the work oneself.”

Thinking Writing Wells Hard Play Seems Half Hard Work Involved Oneself Speed Typewriters

Author:Edward Albee

“I know playwrights who like to kid themselves into saying that their characters are so well formed that they just take over. They determine the structure of the play. By which is meant, I suspect, only that the unconscious mind has done its work so thoroughly that the play just has to be filtered through the conscious mind. But there's work to be done - and discovery to be made.”

Knows Mind Wells Made Done Play Character Kids Conscious Discovery Structure Determine Unconscious Suspects Playwright Unconscious Mind Conscious Mind Work To Be Done

Book:Conversations with Edward Albee

Source: Conversations with Edward Albee

“The characters' lives have gone on before the moment you chose to have the action of the play begin. And their lives are going to go on after you have lowered the final curtain on the play, unless you've killed them off.”

Play Moments Character Action Gone Goes On Finals Curtains

Book:Conversations with Edward Albee

Source: Conversations with Edward Albee

“A play is a parenthesis that contains all the material you think has to be contained for the action of the play. Where do you end that? Where the characters seem to come to a pause... where they seem to want to stop - rather like, I would think, the construction of a piece of music.”

Thinking Want Ends Play Character Seems Action Pieces Materials Construction Pauses Parentheses

Book:Conversations with Edward Albee

Source: Conversations with Edward Albee

“I suspect that the theme, the nature of the characters, and the method of getting from the beginning of the play to the end is already established in the unconscious.”

Ends Play Character Method Theme Unconscious Suspects

Book:Conversations with Edward Albee

Source: Conversations with Edward Albee

“When one controls form, one doesn't do it with a stopwatch or a graph. One does it by sensing, again intuitively.”

Doe Form Sensing Graphs

Book:Conversations with Edward Albee

Source: Conversations with Edward Albee

“Curiously enough, the only two plays that I've done very much revision on were the two adaptations - even though the shape of them was pretty much determined by the original work. With my own plays, the only changes, aside from taking a speech out here, putting one in there (if I thought I dwelled on a point a little too long or didn't make it explicit enough), are very minor; but even though they're very minor - having to do with the inability of actors or the unwillingness of the director to go along with me - I've always regretted them.”

Ifs Littles Long Two Done Enough Play Actors My Own Shapes Directors Speech Originals Determined Minors Inability Adaptation Explicit Revision

Book:Conversations with Edward Albee

Source: Conversations with Edward Albee