Writers have this schizophrenic ability to both participate in their lives and, at the same time, ob...
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Writers have this schizophrenic ability to both participate in their lives and, at the same time, observe themselves participating in their lives.
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If you spend a hundred bucks, or more, to go to the theatre, something should happen to you. Maybe s...
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If you spend a hundred bucks, or more, to go to the theatre, something should happen to you. Maybe somebody should be asking you some questions about your values, or about the way you think about things. Maybe you should come out of the theatre, something having happened to you. Maybe you should be changing, or thinking about changing. But if you just go there, and the only thing you worry about is where you left the damn car, then you wasted a hundred bucks
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That's the happiest moment. When it's all done. When we stop. When we can stop
That's the happiest moment. When it's all done. When we stop. When we can stop
I have learned that neither kindness nor cruelty by themselves; independent of each other, creates a...
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I have learned that neither kindness nor cruelty by themselves; independent of each other, creates any effect beyond themselves; and I have learned that the two combined, together, at the same time, are the teaching emotion. And what is gained is loss
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[when asked why he writes] It's what I do.
[when asked why he writes] It's what I do.
You gotta have swine to show you where the truffles are.
You gotta have swine to show you where the truffles are.
[on Qui a peur de Virginia Woolf? (1966), which was based on his play but in which he played no part...
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[on Qui a peur de Virginia Woolf? (1966), which was based on his play but in which he played no part in bringing to the screen] I found that it made an awfully good picture.
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The Theatre of the Absurd, in the sense that it is truly the contemporary theatre, facing as it does...
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The Theatre of the Absurd, in the sense that it is truly the contemporary theatre, facing as it does man's condition as it is, is the Realistic theatre of our time; and that the supposed Realistic theatre-the term used here to mean most of what is done on Broadway-in the sense that it panders to the public need for self-congratulation and reassurance and presents a false picture of ourselves to ourselves is ... really and truly The Theatre of the Absurd
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Good writers define reality Bad ones merely restate it.
Good writers define reality Bad ones merely restate it.
To all of you who have made my being alive so wonderful, so exciting and so full, my thanks and all ...
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To all of you who have made my being alive so wonderful, so exciting and so full, my thanks and all my love
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The most profound indication of social malignancy ... no sense of humor. None of the monoliths could...
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The most profound indication of social malignancy ... no sense of humor. None of the monoliths could take a joke.
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American critics are like American universities. They both have dull and half-dead faculties.
American critics are like American universities. They both have dull and half-dead faculties.
Unless you are terribly, terribly careful, you run the danger-- without even knowing it is happening...
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Unless you are terribly, terribly careful, you run the danger-- without even knowing it is happening to you-- of slipping into the fatal error of reflecting the public taste instead of creating it. Your responsibility is to the public consciousness, not to the public view of itself.
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[on Katharine Hepburn] Of course, if she played King Kong it would still be Katharine Hepburn.
[on Katharine Hepburn] Of course, if she played King Kong it would still be Katharine Hepburn.
But the landlady is a fat, ugly, mean, stupid, unwashed, misanthropic, cheap, drunken bag of garbage...
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But the landlady is a fat, ugly, mean, stupid, unwashed, misanthropic, cheap, drunken bag of garbage. And you may have noticed that I very seldom use profanity, so I can't describe her as well as I might.
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Addiction is a repeated temporary...stilling. I am concerned with peace...not mere relief
Addiction is a repeated temporary...stilling. I am concerned with peace...not mere relief
Read the great stuff, but read the stuff that isn't so great, too. Great stuff is very discouraging....
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Read the great stuff, but read the stuff that isn't so great, too. Great stuff is very discouraging. If you read only Beckett and Chekhov, you'll go away and only deliver telegrams for Western Union.
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Knowing it--knowing it's true is one thing, but believing what you know... well, there's the tough p...
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Knowing it--knowing it's true is one thing, but believing what you know... well, there's the tough part
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Careers are funny things. They begin mysteriously and, just as mysteriously, they can end.
Careers are funny things. They begin mysteriously and, just as mysteriously, they can end.
... what I wanted to get at is the value difference between pornographic playing cards when you're a...
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... what I wanted to get at is the value difference between pornographic playing cards when you're a kid, and pornographic playing cards when you're older. It's that when you're a kid you use the cards as a substitute for a real experience, and when you're older you use real experience as a substitute for the fantasy.
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[on actors straying from the exact wording of a playwright's script] No one goes around messing with...
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[on actors straying from the exact wording of a playwright's script] No one goes around messing with composers' work the way they do with plays. That's probably where I learned not to put up with that junk. Nobody takes three or four measures out of one of Bach's fugues.
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All of my plays are about people missing the boat, closing down too young, coming to the end of thei...
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All of my plays are about people missing the boat, closing down too young, coming to the end of their lives with regret at things not done, as opposed to things done. I find most people spend too much time living as if they're never going to die.
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It's one of those things a person has to do; sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out o...
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It's one of those things a person has to do; sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly.
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Awww, 'tis the refuge we take when the unreality of the world weighs too heavy on our tiny heads.
Awww, 'tis the refuge we take when the unreality of the world weighs too heavy on our tiny heads.
You're in a straight line, buddy-boy, and it doesn't lead anywhere.....except maybe the grave
You're in a straight line, buddy-boy, and it doesn't lead anywhere.....except maybe the grave
We proceed in this society of ours on the possibly valid but untrue assumption that the public knows...
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We proceed in this society of ours on the possibly valid but untrue assumption that the public knows what it wants-- indeed, that it is given sufficient information about what is available to make such a judgment. And then we jump, irresponsibly and absurdly, to the notion that there is a valid relationship between what the public wants and what it should want.
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If Attila the Hun were alive today, he'd be a drama critic.
If Attila the Hun were alive today, he'd be a drama critic.
Creativity is magic, don't examine it too closely
Creativity is magic, don't examine it too closely
I write to find out what I'm talking about
I write to find out what I'm talking about
