It was not really possible to understand oneself, let alone another human being.

Why am I trying to become what I don’t want to be … when all I want is out there, waiting for me the minute I say I know who I am.

A character is defined by the kinds of challenges he cannot walk away from. And by those he has walked away from that cause him remorse.

The arts can do more to sustain the peace than all the wars, the armaments, and the threats and warnings of politicians.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

Well, all the plays that I was trying to write were plays that would grab an audience by the throat and not release them, rather than presenting an emotion which you could observe and walk away from.

The best of our theater is standing on tiptoe, striving to see over the shoulders of father and mother. The worst is exploiting and wallowing in the self-pity of adolescence and obsessive keyhole sexuality. The way out, as the poet says, is always through.