Terrence McNally Quotes

11 quotes in 285 categories

• There are so many rules about play writing. I'd have a nervous breakdown if I followed them.
• 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 'cause they…
• I like to surprise myself. I've always been attracted to projects where I don't know how they're going to turn out.
• 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…
• 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…
• 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…
• I may think I have inalienable rights to be alive and happy, but I don't - life is a blessing.
• I'm of the school 'Write what you know.' You can educate yourself, but the best writing usually comes from the heart.
• I've had wonderful collaborators. They're very different, just as actors are. Working on a show with Nathan Lane is different from working on a show…
• 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.
• 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…

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