I'm of the school 'Write what you know.' You can educate yourself, but the best writing usually comes from the heart.

- Terrence Mcnally

Write plays that matter. Raise the stakes. Shout, yell, holler, but make yourself heard. It's time for playwrights to reclaim the theatre. We do that…

- Terrence Mcnally

Cheating is not the American way. It is small, while we are large. It is cheap, while we are richly endowed. It is destructive, while we are creative…

- Terrence Mcnally

There are so many rules about play writing. I'd have a nervous breakdown if I followed them.

- Terrence Mcnally

I don't think I've ever written anything even remotely naturalistic. The closest probably would be seen as 'Frankie and Johnny,' and that's only 'cau…

- Terrence Mcnally

Whenever you think you're writing what other people want to hear from you, and that it'll be commercial, you're doomed to disaster. Writing has to be…

- Terrence Mcnally

Work with good directors. Without them your play is doomed. At the time of my first play, I thought a good director was someone who liked my play. I …

- Terrence Mcnally

Young people have got to start their own theaters, really. All good theater is a kind of mom-and-pop operation. Start your own theater.

- Terrence Mcnally

In those days, you had to like one or the other. You couldn't like Sutherland AND Callas.

- Terrence Mcnally