Well, one of the things we're supposed to be able to do as playwrights is write from a place of empathy, get into another character's shoes and experience things both mundane and tragic. And people don't - like me right now - people aren't necessarily the most eloquent when trying to express their emotions. I guess I feel as a playwright that those people deserve a voice, too, a voice that isn't so articulate that they themselves can no longer identify with it.
Tracy LettsI said to my wife just the other day, I was actually taking some time to consider all the blessings in my life and that things are really good. I said, you would have to be a real churl to complain about the life I'm living right now. Everything's going great. I'm having a good time.
Tracy LettsWe're all just people, some of us accidentally connected by genetics, a random selection of cells. Nothing more.
Tracy LettsI'm kind of perverse in that I think pessimism is helpful. My pessimism is my own kind of patriotism. My dissent.
Tracy LettsI mean thereโs a certain finality about a movie, when itโs done itโs done โ that raised eyebrow in that moment will always be that raised eyebrow. Whereas a play only lives as a blueprint for a performance on any given night. Thereโs a reason you can eat popcorn and watch a movie and you canโt do that in the theatre. Theatre you have to lean in, you have to tune your ear to the stage and participateI respond to heat. And blood. And humanity. The cold experience is not for me. Iโve always enjoyed all the real people in a room together in the theatre.
Tracy Letts