People often ask me how long it takes me to write a play, and I tell them 'all of my life.' Edward Albee More Quotes by Edward Albee More Quotes From 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. Edward Albee typewriters writing thinking 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. Edward Albee play character thinking 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. Edward Albee ends play character Arthur Miller once payed me a great compliment saying that my plays were 'necessary.' I will go one step further and say that Arthur's plays are 'essential' Edward Albee essentials play steps Maybe it's a little more pertinent now since the whole concept of evolution is being questioned by the know-nothing Republican right. Yes, maybe the play's a little more pertinent now. Edward Albee evolution play littles If the playwright is strong enough to hold on to reasonable objectivity in the face of either hostility or praise, he'll do his work the way he was going to anyway. Edward Albee objectivity strong way Art should never try to be popular. Edward Albee should trying art If a man writes a brilliant enough play in praise of something that is universally loathed, the play, if it is good and well enough written, should not be knocked down because of its approach to its subject. Edward Albee play writing men The one living playwright I admire without any reservation whatsoever is Samuel Beckett. I have funny feelings about almost all the others. Edward Albee reservations having-fun feelings If the work of art is good enough, it must not be criticized for its theme. I don't think it can be argued. Edward Albee good-enough art thinking In the thirties a whole school of criticism bogged down intellectually in those agitprop, social-realistic days. A play had to be progressive. A number of plays by playwrights who were thought very highly of then - they were very bad playwrights - were highly praised because their themes were intellectually and politically proper. This intellectual morass is very dangerous, it seems to me. A form of censorship. Edward Albee play numbers school You may dislike the intention enormously but your judgment of the artistic merit of the work must not be based on your view of what it's about. The work of art must be judged by how well it succeeds in its intention. Edward Albee views may art I don't set out to write a play a year. Sometimes I've written two plays a year. There was a period of a year and half when I only wrote half a play. If it depresses some critics that I seem prolific, well, that's their problem as much as mine. Edward Albee depressing play writing To a certain extent I imagine a play is completely finished in my mind - in my case, at any rate - without my knowing it, before I sit down to write. Edward Albee knowing play writing I suppose, writing a play is finding out what the play is. Edward Albee findings play writing If you intellectualize and examine the creative process too carefully it can evaporate and vanish. It's not only terribly difficult to talk about, it's also dangerous. Edward Albee dangerous creative process It's the function of a playwright to write. Some playwrights write a large number of plays, some write a small number. Edward Albee small-numbers play writing I usually think about a play anywhere from six months to a year and a half before I sit down to write it out. Edward Albee writing years thinking Every writer's got to pay some attention, I suppose, to what his critics say because theirs is a reflection of what the audience feels about his work. Edward Albee reflection pay attention 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. Edward Albee play character ideas
