There are a number of contemporary playwrights whom I admire enormously, but that's not at all the same thing as being influenced.
Edward AlbeeWhat happens in a play is determined to a certain extent by what I thought might be interesting to have happen before I invented the characters, before they started taking over what happened, because they are three-dimensional individuals, and I cannot tell them what to do. Once I give them their identity and their nature, they start writing the play.
Edward Albee