In an amusement park, you can go on a roller coaster that carries you up and down, or you can go on another kind of ride that whirls you around in a circle. Similarly, there are different sorts of entertaining experiences in the theater. Wallace Shawn More Quotes by Wallace Shawn More Quotes From Wallace Shawn I'm a very lucky man. It's a beautiful thing for a writer, to see people allowing your words to enter their own unconscious and their souls. Wallace Shawn beautiful men people I spend most of my time thinking about things like laundry and buying stationery supplies. Wallace Shawn laundry buying thinking I don't happen to have a sense of humor personally, so I don't know what's funny about a character... This happens to be a feature of my life generally. Wallace Shawn sense-of-humor happens character I probably have a higher opinion of my writing than the average person, at least when I'm in a good mood, but I don't really think of my plays as only being relevant to a particular month or year. Wallace Shawn writing average thinking I see myself as a citizen of the planet. Even as a child, I always found it mindless to root for your own team. I was puzzled by the fact that people said their own team was better than other teams simply because it was theirs. Wallace Shawn team roots children I have been vain since birth. Wallace Shawn vain has-beens birth I do things, and other people laugh at them. I rarely know what the joke is supposed to be or why they're laughing. Wallace Shawn supposed-to-be laughing people I don't have a television, and I'm just not too up on television. Wallace Shawn television I don't see that many plays, and for me, musicals are rarely pleasing. Wallace Shawn play I have an enormous appetite to see life as I know it presented in front of my eyes. Wallace Shawn appetite enormous eye I never planned to be an actor. It turned out I could make a living doing it. Wallace Shawn actors I have been vain since birth. I expected other people to like what I did, although my vanity has definitely diminished over the years. Wallace Shawn vanity people years I have more free time than a lot of individuals, so, instead of talking, I sometimes write. Wallace Shawn writing talking sometimes I never grew up thinking, 'One day I will play so and so' because I wasn't expecting to be an actor at all. Wallace Shawn one-day play thinking I know that I am one and I've made a living as an actor and I enjoy being an actor, but when I'm not actually doing it, I forget that I do it. Wallace Shawn actors made forget 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. Wallace Shawn play beautiful people 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. Wallace Shawn clothes community example 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. Wallace Shawn dream jobs lying 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. Wallace Shawn united-states people thinking 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. Wallace Shawn new-york play writing