All plays stem from personal experience. I was reading psychoanalytic lit for a couple of years, obsessively, in depth, and I got involved in analyzing everyone around me. . . . Eventually, all my friends' eyes began to glaze over when I started talking this way, and I got the hint that there might be something comical in it.
John Patrick ShanleyDoubt requires more courage than conviction does, and more energy; because conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinite โ it is a passionate exercise. You may come out of my play uncertain. You may want to be sure. Look down on that feeling. Weโve got to learn to live with a full measure of uncertainty. There is no last word. Thatโs the silence under the chatter of our time.
John Patrick ShanleyChoose Life over the other stuff. Get out of your head. Live. Dress up. Eat. Touch people. Help out. Give up. Love people. Give your best away. Thereโs more. Whatโs the problem? Relax. Youโre going to die. Throw a party. Eat off my plate. Sing to me. Meet me in the bedroom. Get a massage. Give one. Let your amazement out into the room. Pry open the box you hide your joy in. Be a poem.
John Patrick ShanleyWinning the Pulitzer is a really mellow, fabulous thing. You don't sit and wait for them to open an envelope. You already know you won, and you have a nice lunch. Oscars are more stressful. I had to sit for three hours and wait for my category. I had to fly to Los Angeles. For the Pulitzer I just had to go up to Columbia. But, while the president of Columbia gave me the Pulitzer, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck gave me the Oscar, so that was better.
John Patrick Shanley