Every play is rhythmic control. If you want an audience to go on a journey, it's rhythmic control. You're crafting when they lean in, when they push back, when they breathe, when they surrender.
George C. WolfeRead
When I came to New York, I told everyone I was a writer/director, and they said, 'No.' There was a rule. You could be one or the other. They ordained me writer. But then I won the Obie for directing 'Spunk,' and the rules changed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Defying expectations can lead to success and changing perceptions.
This quote by George C. Wolfe illustrates the struggle of breaking stereotypes and societal norms, especially in creative fields. It highlights how personal ambition can clash with established conventions, yet through determination and success, one can reshape those conventions and challenge the definitions of identity and profession.
Themes
SuccessIdentityCreativeDeterminationChangeNorms
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech addressing young artists about breaking traditional roles.
More from George C. Wolfe
All quotes →One of the things I learned very early on was that if you cast the show correctly, and if you've created the right energy in the room, the solution is also in the room. The solution doesn't necessarily come from someone, but if everybody is working in a very steadfast and rigorous way, then everything you're looking for is in the room.
George C. WolfeRead
A musical is what happens when text collides with motion collides with song collides with spectacle. And spectacle can be the human heart; it doesn't necessarily have to be a helicopter crashing.
George C. WolfeRead
The wonderful thing about theater is that it has so many people involved in the creation of it. The worst thing about theater is that it has so many people involved in the creation of it. That dynamic is thrilling and challenging every time you make a show.
George C. WolfeRead
I was raised to believe that other people's suffering was my responsibility.
George C. WolfeRead
I think I am the first person of color to direct a major white play on Broadway. In 1993? That's astounding to me. And horrifying to me.
George C. WolfeRead
Similar quotes
Success is about honour, feeling morally calibrated, absence of shame, not what some newspaper defines from an external metric.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Good ideas need good strategy to realize their potential.
Reid HoffmanRead
I want to be remembered as the guy who gave his all whenever he was on the field.
Walter PaytonRead
An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied.
Arnold H. GlasowRead
You need three things to become a successful novelist: talent, luck and discipline. Discipline is the one element of those three things that you can control, and so that is the one that you have to focus on controlling, and you just have to hope and trust in the other two.
Michael ChabonRead
All of us failed to match our dreams of perfection. So I rate us on the base of our splendid failure to do the impossible.
William FaulknerRead