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
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When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.
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It doesn't matter if your lead character is good or bad. He just has to be interesting, and he has to be good at what he does.
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More than anything else, though, to anyone who would write about it, golf offers a four-hour drama in two acts, which becomes memorable even in the tape-recorded reminiscenses of old champs, and which - in the hands of someone like Herb Wind - can become a piece of war correspondence as artfully controlled as Alan Morehead's account of Gallipoli.
Alistair CookeRead