The one living playwright I admire without any reservation whatsoever is Samuel Beckett. I have funny feelings about almost all the others.

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

The arts are the only things that separate us from the other animals. The arts are not decorative. ... They are essential to our comprehension of consciousness and ourselves.

Sometimes it's necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly.

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

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.

Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf means who's afraid of the big bad wolf ... who's afraid of living life without false illusions.

You're alive only once, as far as we know, and what could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing you hadn't lived it?

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

One must let the play happen to one; one must let the mind loose to respond as it will, to receive impressions, to sense rather than know, to gather rather than immediately understand.

School curricula that ignore the arts produce highly educated Barbarians

There are times that all you need is someone who will listen to you without judging you — not telling you what you should have done or should do, but simply, listening to you

The only reason anyone goes to Broadway is because they can't get work in the movies.

The more ships have grown in size and consequence, the more their place in our imagination has shrunk.

I think we have grave problems. I am very much concerned about environmental questions, even though in Finnish society, we are not facing the most urgent problems.

Just as the witticism brings two very different real objects under one concept, the pun brings two different concepts, by the assistance of accident, under one word.

One colossal advantage of being in extra innings is that you can tell it like it is, say what you think, and largely eschew political caution.

This Sarah Palin phenomenon is very curious. I think somebody watching us from Mars — they would think the country has gone insane.

It's lack that gives us inspiration. It's not fullness.

The object of music is a Sound. The end; to delight, and move various Affections in us.

Fail early, fail often, in order to succeed sooner.