Play-writing - Quotes

As for the story, whether the poet takes it ready-made or constructs it for himself, he should first sketch its general outline, and then fill in the episodes and amplify in detail. - Aristotle

He who would write for the theatre must not despise the crowd. - Clayton Hamilton

I believe the way to write a good play is to convince yourself it is easy to do – then go ahead and do it with ease. Don't maul, don't suffer, don't groan till the first draft is finished. A play is a pheonix and it dies a thousand deaths. Usually at night. In the morning it springs up again from its ashes and crows like a happy rooster. It is never as bad as you think, it is never as good. It is somewhere in between, and success or failure depends on which end of your emotional gamut concerning its value it approaches more closely. But it is much more likely to be good if you think it is wonderful while you are writing the first draft. An artist must believe in himself. Your belief is contagious. Others may say he is vain, but they are affected. - Tennessee Williams

I get fed up with all this nonsense of ringing people up and lighting cigarettes and answering the doorbell that passes for action in so many modern plays. - Graham Greene

If I write a new play, my point of view may be profoundly modified. I may be obliged to contradict myself and I may no longer know whether I still think what I think. - Eugene Ionesco

In a play, from the beginning, you have to realize that you’re preparing something which is going into the hands of other people, unknown at the time you’re writing it. - T. S. Eliot

Society is inside of man and man is inside society, and you cannot even create a truthfully drawn psychological entity on the stage until you understand his social relations and their power to make him what he is and to prevent him from being what he is not. The fish is in the water and the water is in the fish. - Arthur Miller

The art of the dramatist is very like the art of the architect. A plot has to be built up just as a house is built – story after story; and no edifice has any chance of standing unless it has a broad foundation and a solid frame. - Brander Matthews

The difference between a live play and a dead one is that in the former the characters control the plot, while in the latter the plot controls the characters. - William Archer The poet cannot invent new words every time, of course. He uses the words of the tribe. But the handling of the word, the accent, a new articulation, renew them. - Eugene Ionesco

The subject of drama is The Lie. At the end of the drama THE TRUTH – which has been overlooked, disregarded, scorned, and denied – prevails. And that is how we know the Drama is done. - David Mamet

What shouldn't you do if you're a young playwright? Don’t bore the audience! I mean, even if you have to resort to totally arbitrary killing on stage, or pointless gunfire, at least it'll catch their attention and keep them awake. Just keep the thing going any way you can. - Tennessee Williams