creativity

critic

democracy

fiction

government

monster

old age

play

playwright

pornography

progress

sincerity

style

symbol

theater

writer

writing

nationality

American

occupation / innovator as

university teacher

screenwriter

scientific organization

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

theater director

American Academy of Arts and Letters

Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts

prosaist

PEN America

's function is to bring people into greater touch with reality, and yet our movie houses and family rooms are jammed with people after as much reality-removal as they can get.

The function of art is to bring people into greater touch with reality, and yet our movie houses and family rooms are jammed with people after as much reality-removal as they can get. Edward Albee

is magic, and so should not be examined too closely.

Creativity is magic. Don't examine it too closely. Edward Albee

is, in America, like American universities. They both have dull and half-dead faculties.

American critics are like American universities. They both have dull and half-dead faculties. Edward Albee

is one who, when he sets himself up as an arbiter of morality, that is, a judge of the matter and not the manner of a work, he is no longer a critic... he is a censor.

When a critic sets himself up as an arbiter of morality, a judge of the matter and not the manner of a work, he is no longer a critic... he is a censor. Edward Albee

is a political system in which we can have anything we want and we always end up with exactly what we deserve.

Remember one thing about democracy. We can have anything we want and at the same time, we always end up with exactly what we deserve. Edward Albee

A play is fiction and fiction is fact distilled into truth. Edward Albee

is far more interested in taking, in regulated taking, than in promoting spontaneous generosity.

The government is far more interested in taking, in regulated taking, than in promoting spontaneous generosity. Edward Albee

Every monster was a man first. Edward Albee

is becoming deaf so you won't be able to hear people snapping at you.

When you get old, you can't talk to people because people snap at you. . . . That's why you become deaf, so you won't be able to hear people talking to you that way. Edward Albee

is a parenthesis that contains all the material you think has to be contained for the action of the play.

A play is a parenthesis that contains all the material you think has to be contained for the action of the play. Where do you end that' Where the characters seem to come to a pause. . . where they seem to want to stop rather like, I would think, the construction of a piece of music. Edward Albee

is responsibility to his society not to aid it, or comfort it, but to comment and criticize it.

A playwright has a responsibility in his society not to aid it, or comfort it, but to comment and criticize it. Edward Albee

is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.

Do you know what a playwright is' A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage. Edward Albee

is use by the kid as a substitute for a real experience, while the adult uses real experience as a substitute for the fantasy.

What I wanted to get at is the value difference between pornographic playing-cards when you're a kid, and pornographic playing-cards when you're older. It's that when you're a kid you use the cards as a substitute for a real experience, and when you're older you use real experience as a substitute for the fantasy. Edward Albee

Progress is a set of assumptions. Edward Albee

is meaningless: A person can be sincere and be more destructive than a person who is insincere.

Sincerity doesn't mean anything. A person can be sincere and be more destructive than a person who is insincere. Edward Albee

is a thing whereby if you're willing to fail interestingly, you tend to succeed interestingly.

If you're willing to fail interestingly, you tend to succeed interestingly. Edward Albee

 should not hit you over the head. A symbol should not be a cymbal.

I don't like symbolism that hits you over the head. A symbol should not be a cymbal. Edward Albee

is one who runs the risk of slipping into the fatal error of reflecting the public taste instead of creating it. The writer's responsibility is to the public consciousness, not to the public view of itself.

Unless you are terribly, terribly careful, you run the danger-without even knowing it is happening to you-of slipping into the fatal error of reflecting the public taste instead of creating it. Your responsibility is to the public consciousness, not to the public view of itself. Edward Albee

is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt that it didn't matter.

The act of writing is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt that it didn't matter. Edward Albee

is not writing about oneself, as people don't know anything about themselves.

I think that's foolishness on the part of the playwright to write about himself. People don't know anything about themselves. Edward Albee

Edward AlbeeThinkers

Edward Albee