Art has an obligation to offend

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.

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.

I find that when my plays are going well, they seem to resemble pieces of music. But if I had to go into specifics about it, I wouldn't be able to. It's merely something that I feel.

I said I was impressed, Martha. I'm beside myself with jealousy. What do you want me to do, throw up?

There are a number of contemporary playwrights whom I admire enormously, but that's not at all the same thing as being influenced.

I usually think about a play anywhere from six months to a year and a half before I sit down to write it out.