To write a play one must be born a playwright. Otherwise, you're starting at a huge disadvantage. Edward Albee More Quotes by Edward Albee More Quotes From Edward Albee Sometimes I think the experience of a play is finished for me when I finish writing it. If it weren't for the need to make a living, I don't know whether I'd have the plays produced. Edward Albee play writing thinking The ultimate judgment of a work of art, whether it be a masterpiece or a lesser event, must be solely in terms of its artistic success and not on Freudian guesswork. Edward Albee judgment events art Some things that make sense to me don't make the same degree of sense to other people. Edward Albee degrees make-sense people I’m infinitely more involved in the reality of the characters and their situation than I am in everyday life. Edward Albee everyday character reality I'm back in fashion again for a while now. But I imagine that three or four years from now I'll be out again. And in another fifteen years I'll be back. If you try to write to stay in fashion, if you try to write to be the critics' darling, you become an employee. Edward Albee fashion writing years When a play enters my consciousness, is already a fairly well-developed fetus. I don't put down a word until the play seems ready to be written. Edward Albee fetus play writing Progress is a set of assumptions. Edward Albee progress assumption Sincerity doesn't mean anything. A person can be sincere and be more destructive than a person who is insincere. Edward Albee sincerity sincere mean I have a fine sense of the ridiculous, but no sense of humor. Edward Albee humor inspirational funny My sense of reality and logic is different from most people's. Edward Albee different reality people The act of creation, as you very well know, is a lonely and private matter and has nothing to do with the public area... the performance of the work one creates. Edward Albee creation lonely matter I've seen an awful lot of plays that I'd read before they were put into production and been shocked by what's happened to them. In the attempt to make them straightforward and commercially successful, a lot of things go out the window. Edward Albee awful successful play Some writers' view of things depends upon the success of the final result. I'd rather stand or fall on my own concepts. But there is a fine line to be drawn between pointing up something or distorting it. Edward Albee finals views fall In rehearsals I get so completely wrapped up with the reality that's occurring on stage that by the time the play has opened I'm not usually quite as aware of the distinctions between what I'd intended and the result. There are many ways of getting the same result. Edward Albee rehearsal play reality I imagine as an axiom you could say that the better the play, the less "creativity" the director need exert. Edward Albee creativity play directors I think it's for the critics to decide whether or not their loathing of the play is based on something other than the play's merits or demerits. They must search their own souls, or whatever. Edward Albee soul play thinking The playwright, along with any writer, composer, painter in this society, has got to have a terribly private view of his own value, of his own work. He's got to listen to his own voice primarily. He's got to watch out for fads, for what might be called the critical aesthetics. Edward Albee voice views might The final evaluation of a play has nothing to do with immediate audience or critical response. Edward Albee evaluation finals play A rather ugly thing starts happening: the playwright finds himself knocked down for works that quite often are just as good or better than the works he's been praised for previously. And a lot of playwrights become confused by this and they start doing imitations of what they've done before, or they try to do something entirely different, in which case they get accused by the same critics of not doing what they used to do so well. Edward Albee confused ugly-things trying If you examine the history of any playwright of the past twenty - five or thirty years - I'm not talking about the comedy boys, I'm talking about the more serious writers - it seems inevitable that almost every one has been encouraged until the critics feel that they have built them up beyond the point where they can control them; then it's time to knock them down again. Edward Albee talking boys past
