Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.
Edward AlbeeRead
Few sensible authors are happy discussing the creative process--it is, after all, black magic.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The creative process is often mysterious and difficult to articulate, akin to 'black magic'.
In this quote, Edward Albee suggests that the act of creating art is a complicated and often enigmatic process that defies logical explanation. Authors and artists may struggle to discuss their own creative journeys, as they can feel like they are tapping into something mysterious and profound, much like a form of sorcery or black magic that cannot be fully understood or conveyed.
Themes
Creative ProcessArtMysteryExpressionCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
During a workshop on writing, someone might quote Albee to illustrate the challenges authors face when discussing their craft.
More from Edward Albee
All quotes βWhen 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.
Edward AlbeeRead
I am convinced that no one is fully educated without a full grounding in the arts.
Edward AlbeeRead
Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it.
Edward AlbeeRead
Remember one thing about democracy. We can have anything we want and at the same time, we always end up with exactly what we deserve.
Edward AlbeeRead
Your source material is the people you know, not those you don't know, but every character is an extension of the author's own personality.
Edward AlbeeRead
Similar quotes
The poems ... are moments when I had the intensity to see, and the energy to build, some careful analog that completed the seeing. ... All I have been left is the exhausting habit of trying to tack up the slack in my life with words.
Samuel R. DelanyRead
So that I saw music as a way of documenting realities from the urban cities of Latin America.
Ruben BladesRead
Speaking for myself, art differs from writing in that I never know what I'm going to paint until I paint it, so it's almost like automatic writing. A writer, on the other hand, can't help but know what he's going to write, because the activity demands a degree of premeditation.
William S. BurroughsRead
I can't live where I want to, I can't go where I want to go, I can't do what I want to, I can't even say what I want to. I decided I was a very stupid fool not to at least paint as I wanted to.
Georgia O'KeeffeRead
So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it's the hardest to do anything with. That's about all that can be said for plots, which anyway are just one thing after another, a what and a what and a what.
Margaret AtwoodRead
The radio is playing jazz, and I listen to the sound of the trumpet playing a solo until I become that sound.
Joy HarjoRead