Writing Has Got To Be

A Rather Ugly Thing Starts Happening: The Playwright Finds Himself Knocked Down For Works That Quite Often Are Just As Good Or Better Than The Works He's Been Praised For Previously. And A Lot Of Playwrights Become Confused By This And They Start Doing Imitations Of What They've Done Before, Or They Try To Do Something Entirely Different, In Which Case They Get Accused By The Same Critics Of Not Doing What They Used To Do So Well.

The Final Evaluation Of A Play Has Nothing To Do With Immediate Audience Or Critical Response.

Writing Has Got To Be An Act Of Discovery. Finding Out Things About What One Is Writing About.

The Playwright, Along With Any Writer, Composer, Painter In This Society, Has Got To Have A Terribly Private View Of His Own Value, Of His Own Work. He's Got To Listen To His Own Voice Primarily. He's Got To Watch Out For Fads, For What Might Be Called The Critical Aesthetics.

Read The Great Stuff, But Read The Stuff That Isn't So Great, Too. Great Stuff Is Very Discouraging. If You Read Only Beckett And Chekhov, You'll Go Away And Only Deliver Telegrams For Western Union.