“Art should never try to be popular.”

A playwright has a responsibility in his society not to aid it, or comfort it, but to comment and criticize it.

Few sensible authors are happy discussing the creative process–it is, after all, black magic.

In a democracy you cannot stop public access to that art that will most misinform the people. You cannot stop people from being misinformed. But what you can do is to educate the people to the point that they will throw the rascals out.

I have been both overpraised and under praised. I assume by the time I finish writing — and I plan to go on writing until I’m 90 or gaga it will all equal itself out.

Martha: Oh, I like your anger. I think that’s what I like about you most. Your anger.

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.

It always seems to me better to slough off the answer to a question that I consider to be a terrible invasion of privacy – the kind of privacy that a writer must keep for himself.

I think I was probably wondering, having looked at human beings for a long time, wondering if evolution ever took place. And I still have my doubts.

Musical beds is the faculty sport around here.

Progress is a set of assumptions.

A writer is a controlled schizophrenic.

I suppose, writing a play is finding out what the play is.

People often ask me how long it takes me to write a play, and I tell them ‘all of my life.’

I am sick of the disparity between things as they are and as they should be. I’m tired.I’m tired of the truth and I’m tired of lying about the truth.

A lot of people are confused by “hello.” A lot of people are confused by a lot of things they shouldn’t be confused by.

I don’t like symbolism that hits you over the head. A symbol should not be a cymbal.

Popularity has a bright side, it unlocks many doors. But the truth is that I don’t like it very much because it changes the private life into a very small thing.

You don’t have to build the habits everyone tells you to build. Choose the habit that best suits you, not the one that is most popular.

Leadership is not a popularity contest; it’s about leaving your ego at the door. The name of the game is to lead without a title.

To do the impossible, you need to ignore the popular.

One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists, a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid.

I read the newspapers with lively interest. It is seldom that they are absolutely, point-blank wrong. That is the popular belief, but those who are in the know can usually discern an embryo of truth, a little grit of fact, like the core of a pearl, round which have been deposited the delicate layers of ornament.

If cash comes with fame, come fame; if cash comes without fame, come cash.

Great things are not accomplished by those who yield to trends and fads and popular opinion.