Edward Albee Quotes - Page 2

Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it.

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.

In a democracy you cannot stop public access to that art that will most misinform the people. You cannot stop people from being misinformed. But what you can do is to educate the people to the point that they will throw the rascals out.

I think you remember everything ... you just can't bring it to mind all the time.

There are only two things to write about: life and death.

You gotta have swine to show you where the truffles are.

I am not interested in living in a city where there isn't a production by Samuel Beckett running.

If you intellectualize and examine the creative process too carefully it can evaporate and vanish. It's not only terribly difficult to talk about, it's also dangerous.

As a playwright, I imagine that in one fashion or another I've been influenced by every single play I've ever experienced.

Martha: Truth or illusion, George; you don't know the difference. George: No, but we must carry on as though we did. Martha: Amen.

I write to find out what I'm talking about.

I created myself, and I'll attack anybody I feel like.

Why we are here is an impenetrable question.

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

Writing has got to be an act of discovery. Finding out things about what one is writing about.

I don't feel that catharsis in a play necessarily takes place during the course of a play. Often it should take place afterward.

Art should never try to be popular.

The most profound indication of social malignancy ... no sense of humor. None of the monoliths could take a joke.

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

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.

What people really want in the theater is fantasy involvement and not reality involvement.

A lot interests me - but nothing surprises me particularly.

A lot of people are confused by "hello." A lot of people are confused by a lot of things they shouldn't be confused by.

The only time I'll get good reviews is if I kill myself.

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.