What People Really Want In

There Are A Number Of Contemporary Playwrights Whom I Admire Enormously, But That's Not At All The Same Thing As Being Influenced.

I Have Been Both Overpraised And Underpraised. I Assume By The Time I Finish Writing -- And I Plan To Go On Writing Until I'm 90 Or Gaga -- It Will All Equal Itself Out.

True, I Don't Begin With An Idea For A Play - A Thesis, In Other Words, To Construct The Play Around. But I Know A Good Deal About The Nature Of The Characters. I Know A Great Deal About Their Environment. And I More Or Less Know What Is Going To Happen In The Play.

The Characters' Lives Have Gone On Before The Moment You Chose To Have The Action Of The Play Begin. And Their Lives Are Going To Go On After You Have Lowered The Final Curtain On The Play, Unless You've Killed Them Off.

The Avant-garde Theater Is Fun; It Is Free-wheeling, Bold, Iconoclastic, And Often Wildly, Wildly Funny. If You Will Approach It With Childlike Innocence -- Putting Your Standard Responses Aside, For They Do Not Apply -- If You Will Approach It On Its Own Terms, I Think You Will Be In For A Liberating Surprise. I Think You May No Longer Be Content With Plays That You Can't Remember Halfway Down The Block.