“The act of writing is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt that it didn’t matter.”

Influence is a matter of selection – both acceptance and rejection.

It is a lazy public which promotes a slothful and irresponsible theater.

I find relatively little relationship between the work of art and the immediate critical response it gets.

There are only two things to write about: life and death.

Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it.

All serious art is being destroyed by commerce. Most people don’t want art to be disturbing. They want it to be escapist. I don’t think art should be escapist. That’s a waste of time.

When 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.

The most profound indication of social malignancy no sense of humor. None of the monoliths could take a joke.

Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.

Being different is interesting; there’s nothing implicitly inferior or superior about it. Great difference, of course, produces natural caution; and if the differences are too extreme well, then, reality tends to fade away.

The responsibility of the writer is to be a sort of demonic social critic — to present the world and people in it as he sees it and say, “Do you like it? If you don’t like it, change it.

The function of art is to bring people into greater touch with reality, and yet our movie houses and family rooms are jammed with people after as much reality-removal as they can get.

That’s the happiest moment. When it’s all done. When we stop. When we can stop.

I created myself, and I’ll attack anybody I feel like.

Well, when you write about people of a certain age we are in a postsexual situation. If I write about younger people then I write sexually, because their drive is sexual. It depends upon the circumstances.

Anything you put in a play – any speech – has got to do one of two things: either define character or push the action of the play along.

Optimists are happier in life for a reason.

Optimism is my best defense.

The ups and downs, the problems and stress, along with all the happiness, have given me optimism and hope because I am living proof of survival.

Haters are a drop in the ocean. Theres that much more love

I wish that I could say I was optimistic about the human race. I love us all, but we are so stupid and shortsighted that I wonder if we can lift our eyes to the world about us long enough not to commit suicide.

It seems wisest to assume the worst from the beginning, and let anything better come as a surprise.

I am an optimist by nature and I reserve the right to be wrong.

A positive mind finds opportunity in everything. A negative mind finds fault in everything.