Best Playwright Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“In my collection, to me at least, the theatre of the past lives again and those long-dead playwrights and actors have in me an enthralled audience of one, and I applaud them across the centuries.”

Long Past Actors Audience Century Theatre Collections Playwright Past Life Audience Of One

Book:Selected Works on the Pleasures of Reading

Source: Selected Works on the Pleasures of Reading

“A novel it's different. It's kind of exhilarating not to have to cut to the bone constantly. Oh, well I can go over here for a moment. I can say what I think the guy was thinking or what the day looked like or what the bird was doing. If you do that as a playwright, you're dead.”

Ifs Thinking Wells Kind I Can Different Moments Guy Novel Cutting Bird Bones Playwright Exhilarating Oh Well

Author:David Mamet

“I attacked those Western playwrights who use their influence and affluence to preach to the world the nihilistic doctrine that life is pointless and irrationally destructive, and that there is nothing we can do about it. Until everyone is fed, clothed, housed and taught, until human beings have equal leisure to contemplate the overwhelming fact of mortality, we should not (I argued) indulge in the luxury of "privileged despair."”

“There are lots of young vital playwrights who are experimenting, and these are the plays that people who are interested in the theatre should see. They should go off Broadway. They should go to the cafe theatres and see the experiments that are being made.”

People Should Made Play Young Theatre Experiments Broadway Playwright Cafes

Author:Edward Albee

“I think that's foolishness on the part of the playwright to write about himself. People don't know anything about themselves.”

People Thinking Knows Writing Foolishness Playwright

Author:Edward Albee

“By some curious mischance, a couple of my plays managed to hit an area where commercial success was feasible. But it's wrong to think I'm a commercial playwright who has somehow ceased his proper function. I have always been the same thing - which is not a commercial playwright. I'm not after the brass ring.”

Thinking Play Couple Areas Function Rings Curious Playwright Brass Mischance

Author:Edward Albee

“I am pleased and reassured by the fact that a lot of younger playwrights seem to pay me some attention and gain some nourishment from what I do.”

Facts Seems Pay Attention Gains Playwright Nourishment

Book:Conversations with Edward Albee

Source: Conversations with Edward Albee

“A playwright has a responsibility in his society not to aid it, or comfort it, but to comment and criticize it.”

Responsibility Comfort Aids Criticize Comment Playwright

Book:Conversations with Edward Albee

Source: Conversations with Edward Albee

“An article on playwrights in the Daily Mail , listed according to Hard Left, Soft Left, Hard Right, Soft Right and Centre. I am not listed. I should probably come under Soft Centre.”

Should Hard Left Articles Mail Centre Playwright Daily Mail

Book:Writing Home

Source: Writing Home

“You know, I used to not understand fashion, a lot of it, but I completely understood being a playwright or a screenwriter and suddenly having an actor say your words and making them come to life. That I can understand. Finally, I'm starting to understand this.”

Knows I Can Used Actors Fashion Understood Starting Playwright Screenwriters

Author:Reese Witherspoon

“You simply cannot invent any conspiracy theory so ridiculous and obviously satirical that some people somewhere don't already believe it.”

People Believe Theory Obvious Ridiculous Novelists Conspiracy Playwright Inventing Satirical Conspiracy Theory Essayists

Author:Robert Anton Wilson

“Well, one of the things we're supposed to be able to do as playwrights is write from a place of empathy, get into another character's shoes and experience things both mundane and tragic. And people don't - like me right now - people aren't necessarily the most eloquent when trying to express their emotions. I guess I feel as a playwright that those people deserve a voice, too, a voice that isn't so articulate that they themselves can no longer identify with it.”

People Feels Writing Trying Wells Character Able Voice Emotion Right Now Empathy Deserve Shoes Like Me Supposed To Be Tragic Mundane Playwright Eloquent Don't Like Me

Author:Tracy Letts

“In theater, the playwright is the boss, period. The decisions will go through him or her. In movies, the writer is pretty far down on the list.”

Decision Periods Theater Lists Boss Playwright

Author:Tracy Letts

“If modern design moved the stage picture away from the specific, tangible, illusionistic world of Romanticism and Realism into a generalized, theatrical, and poetic realm in which the pictorial image functioned as an extension of the playwright's themes and structures (a metanarrative), then postmodern design is a dissonant reminder that no single point of view can predominate, even within a single image.”

Source: Looking Into the Abyss: Essays on Scenography

“To write a play one must be born a playwright. Otherwise, you're starting at a huge disadvantage.”

Writing Play Born Huge Starting Playwright Disadvantages

Author:Edward Albee

“One does not go to the theater to see life and nature; one goes to see the particular way in which life and nature happen to look to a cultivated, imaginative and entertaining man who happens, in turn, to be a playwright.”

Men Way Looks Doe Happens Turns Particular Theater Entertaining Imaginative Playwright

Book:The Critic and the Drama

Source: The Critic and the Drama

“I know all about improvisation and the free-form that mirrors the chaos of our time, but I do like to feel that the playwright has done some work before I got there.”

Knows Feels Done Form Theater Mirrors Chaos Our Time Playwright Improvisation

Book:Penny Candy

Source: Penny Candy

“When you think about it, what other playwrights are there besides O'Neill, Tennessee and me?”

Thinking Theater Playwright Tennessee

Author:Mae West

“The critic is the duenna in the passionate affair between playwrights, actors and audiences - a figure dreaded, and occasionally comic, but never welcome, never loved.”

Actors Audience Figures Critics Affair Passionate Welcome Comic Playwright Actors And Audience

Book:The Personal Art: Reading to Good Purpose

Source: The Personal Art: Reading to Good Purpose

“An actor and a [theatre] director are both what I would call interpreters of work. We interpret a work, just as a musician will interpret a composer's work, we interpret the work of a playwright. We are servants of the theatre and I've always believed that. We must serve what has been written, that's what we're there for.”

Has Beens Actors Written Directors Musician Theatre Servant Composer Always Believe Playwright Interpreter Theatre Directors

Author:George Ogilvie

“Mere wealth, I am above it, / It is the reputation wide, / The playwright's pomp, the poet's pride / That eagerly I covet.”

Wealth Poet Pride Fame Mere Wide Reputation Playwright

Book:Stones from a glass house: new poems by Phyllis McGinley

Source: Stones from a glass house: new poems by Phyllis McGinley

“I love the students - they are remarkable, inspiring people. I would miss teaching if I stopped doing it. The kind of work I do is pretty diverse: I can cast a play while doing a polish of a screenplay, while thinking about a new play and revising another. In other words, the kind of work that I do during my work day is not just writing, yet it is all part of the job of being a playwright.”

People Ifs Thinking Writing Kind I Can Play Jobs Teaching Missing Students Casts Remarkable Diverse Polish Playwright Screenplays Revising Work Day

Author:Donald Margulies

“I, too, am deeply concerned with an overarching idea that dramaturgs are now authors . . .. I am not taking the position that all dramaturgs own copyright, deserve special billing credit, or should receive remuneration akin to that of the playwright. I know from my ears at the Dramatists Guild that almost everyone a writer encounters has suggestions of how to write and rewrite the play or musical to make it work.”

Knows Should Writing Ideas Play Special Position Deserve Concerned Ears Musical Credit Crafts Encounters Suggestions Playwright Copyright Guilds Remuneration Billing

Author:Dana Rosemary Scallon

“if there's a spirit world why don't the ghosts of dead artists get together and inhibit bad playwrights from tormenting first-nighters?”

Ifs World Firsts Together Spirit Artist Theater Ghost Playwright Get Together Spirit World

Book:Black Oxen

Source: Black Oxen

“The only thing we are as actors are messengers. That's all we are. Correct? We are delivering the playwright's intention through the concept of the director. And I come on stage; if I feel confident in the role, then I give it away.”

Ifs Giving Feels Actors Roles Stage Directors Concepts Intention Playwright Messengers Delivering

Author:Patti LuPone

“Neil [Simon] was considered our greatest [living playwright] at the time [of their marriage]. Maybe he still is; I don't know. But anyway, he was hugely successful, and I just kind of got folded into that. And in some ways, he protected me, but in other ways, I wasn't fully able to step out, you know? He didn't want me to go away so much. The work that we did together was great, and I don't regret it, but what I am saying is that I didn't get an opportunity to explore some other areas that were offered to me early on. I took what I might call a U-turn.”

Knows Way Want Kind Stills Might Able Together Turns Opportunity Steps Successful Regret Areas Going Away Want Me Protected Playwright Don't Regret

Author:Marsha Mason

“A stage play is basically a form of uber-schizophrenia. You split yourself into two minds - one being the protagonist and the other being the antagonist. The playwright also splits himself into two other minds: the mind of the writer and the mind of the audience.”

Mind Two Play Form Audience Stage Splits Playwright Schizophrenia Protagonists Antagonist Uber Stage Play Two Minds

Author:David Mamet

“Have you ever been so melancholy, that you wanted to fit in the palm of your beloved's hand? And lie there, for fortnights, or decades, or the length of time between stars? In complete silence?”

Hands Wanted Lying Stars Silence Sadness Fit Decades Beloved Length Melancholy Palms Playwright Fitting Fortnight

Book:The Clean House and Other Plays

Source: The Clean House and Other Plays

“Plays are getting smaller and smaller, not because playwrights minds are shrinking but because of the economics.”

Mind Play Economics Playwright Shrinking

Author:Lynn Nottage

“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

“In America they have to know just what you are-- novelist, poet, playwright... Well, I've been all of them... I think poems and novels and stories spring from the same seed. It's not like, say, playing polo and knitting.”

Thinking Knows Wells Stories America Novel Poet Spring Seeds Novelists Playwright Knitting Polo

Author:Robert Penn Warren

“I did a lot of freelance desk publishing jobs when I graduated from college. I sort of earned a living doing that while I was writing plays, which was what I wanted to do. My hope was to become a playwright.”

Writing Play Wanted Jobs College Publishing Desks Playwright

Author:Jason Katims

“William Congreve is the only sophisticated playwright England has produced; and like Shaw, Sheridan, and Wilde, his nearest rivals, he was brought up in Ireland.”

England Ireland Sophisticated Rivals Playwright Wilde

Book:Curtains: Selections from the Drama Criticism and Related Writings

Source: Curtains: Selections from the Drama Criticism and Related Writings

“Each religion is a brave guess at the authorship of Hamlet. Yet, as far as the play goes, does it make any difference whether Shakespeare or Bacon wrote it? Would it make any difference to the actors if their parts happened out of nothingness, if they found themselves acting on the stage because of some gross and unpardonable accident? Would it make any difference if the playwright gave them the lines or whether they composed them themselves, so long as the lines were properly spoken? Would it make any difference to the characters if 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' was really a dream?”

Ifs Long Doe Play Character God Dream Night Actors Found Differences Lines Acting Happened Stage Brave Accidents Nothingness Gross Playwright Authorship Midsummer Midsummer Night's Dream

Author:Lewis Mumford

“... actors of the first water are not more plentiful than playwrights of genius.”

Firsts Actors Water Acting Genius Playwright Plentiful

Book:The Art of the Theatre

Source: The Art of the Theatre

“David Mamet we all know is a great screenplay writer and playwright and a great director. If you like him, you like him. If you hate him, you really hate him. He's someone who's into controversy, you know what I mean? That's David Mamet.”

Ifs Knows Mean Hate Directors Controversy Playwright Screenplays Hate Him

Author:Tom Hardy

“Steven Alan Green is ONE funny writer ---- Everything I read of yours makes me laugh and think - Not just the kind words about meBut the insights you have for the Comedy racket.You're Barbara Hershey, we are beaches.”

Thinking Kind Laughing Comedy Laughter Green Insight Beach Comedian Playwright Humorists Make Me Laugh Kind Words Racket Barbara Hershey

Author:Taylor Negron

“I don't believe in politics. I'm an anarchist, I guess you could say. I think people could be just fine looking after themselves.”

People Thinking Believe Care Political Fine Don't Believe Playwright Anarchist Guessing

Author:Woody Harrelson

“I've taken [acting] class with Larry Moss, who's more kind of in the theater world, so he's really educated me about playwrights.”

World Kind Acting Class Taken Theater Educated Playwright Larry Moss Acting Classes

Author:Eva Mendes

“I'm an actor and a playwright, and I don't earn much.”

Actors Playwright

Author:Ellen McLaughlin

“We are not the playwright, we are not the producer, we are not even the audience. We are on the stage.”

Audience Stage Producers Playwright

Book:A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis

Source: A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis

“Lou Tyrrell has created a theatre that is a safe haven for playwrights, a birthing center for new American writing. Arts Garage has created a vital, enthusiastic audience for theatre, music, painting and sculpture in Delray Beach.”

Writing Art Audience Havens Painting Safe Theatre Beach Sculpture Enthusiastic Playwright Garage Safe Haven Birthing

Author:Israel Horovitz

“I think in theater the playwright is king. Those words are unchangeable. They are the reason that everything else flows from.”

Thinking Reason Kings Flow Theater Playwright Unchangeable

Author:Greta Gerwig

“Most British playwrights of my generation, as well as younger folks, apparently feel somewhat obliged to Russian literature - and not only those writing for theatres. Russian literature is part of the basic background knowledge for any writer. So there is nothing exceptional in the interest I had towards Russian literature and theatre. Frankly, I couldn't image what a culture would be like without sympathy towards Russian literature and Russia, whether we'd be talking about drama or Djagilev.”

“What does a painter do? You get a painting, you put some intent and passion and emotion into these things, and hope the people will receive it. Same as a playwright. It's art.”

People Doe Art Passion Emotion Painting Painter Playwright

Author:Creed Bratton

“The director was only invented in the nineteenth century. So directors have only been around for 200 year,s and playwrights have been around since Sophocles and Euripides.”

Years Has Beens Century Directors Playwright Nineteenth Century

Author:Sarah Ruhl

“Any actor, any playwright who's worked a life in the theater knows how to do things cheaply and quickly. It's just all by necessity. Invention is everything.”

Knows Actors Know How Theater Invention Playwright

Author:Israel Horovitz

“I know too many playwrights, or would-be playwrights, or would-have-been playwrights, that are around my age, who were bitter or have gone to something else because they got such a raw deal from critics, and some are quite wonderful writers.”

Knows Has Beens Would Be Age Deals Gone Wonderful Critics Bitter Playwright

Author:Jennifer Tipton

“[Anton] Chekhov is the most produced playwright in the world after Shakespeare, and most of the people in my sort of audience would have seen at least one of his plays.”

People World Play Audience Playwright Chekhov

Author:Robert Dessaix

“I was my class playwright and I wrote plays set in villages with kings and chiefs.My plays were about treason and betrayals. If they were influenced by Macbeth, they were also influenced by Nigerian plays I had seen and Village Headmaster, a television drama series I had watched as a child.”

Ifs Children Play Class Television Kings Drama Series Betrayal Chiefs Village Playwright Treason Headmasters Television Drama

Author:Sefi Atta

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Playwright Quotes