A Delicate Balance, Three Tall Women, A Zoo Story, Who’s Afraid of
Virginia Woolf? — even the names of Edward Albee’s plays are
arresting. A three-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Albee
had his share of critically acclaimed — and panned — plays. In an
interview I was lucky enough to catch, Edward shared this:
“I started out as a rotten poet.”
“Make sure you seize control of your life, [or you’ll be] filled with
regret over what you haven’t done.
“Don’t waste your life. Always be able to see the precipice wherever
you’re walking.”
“Any play that doesn’t ask tough questions isn’t worth going to.”
“Ideally, a play should hold a mirror up to people.”
“I think that some of the plays that were crucified by critics and
closed instantly were just as good as my most popular ones.”
So I listen for a long time and sometimes these characters do scenes for me….
I put my characters in a situation that will never be in my play.”
“Every worthwhile writer has an accurate take on how he’s doing and goes about
his business.”
“Anybody involved in the arts will admit they have a lot of questions.”
“Write as well as you can — learn your craft and do it as well as you
possibly can.”
“It takes as long as it takes.
And a few more gems:
“The thing that makes a creative person is to be creative and that is
all there is to it.”
“Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. A good
writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer, will more often than not,
accomplish the opposite.”
“A play is fiction; and fiction is fact distilled into truth.”
“If Attila the Hun were alive today, he’d be a drama critic.”
Bravo, Edward! Inspirited and instigated, let’s all write on!