A range of quotations about playwriting, some new and some a little older. Have a read through and see what inspires you:
I think it’s really important to have the laugh because laughter lets out that tension and it means you can go further with your next point – you have to earn those hellish moments. Also, I think of some of the darkest situations I’ve been in and we’ve always cracked jokes – they run very close together I think, tragedy and comedy and my favourite plays are both. POLLY STENHAM
Writers need to read. We need to take responsibility for our craft. We need to refresh ourselves and to inspire ourselves. SIMON STEPHENS
One usually dislikes a play while writing it, but afterwards it grows on one. Let others judge and make decisions. ANTON CHEKHOV
In a play, from the beginning, you have to realize that you’re preparing something which is going into the hands of other people, unknown at the time you’re writing it.TS ELIOT
I think that as a playwright, if I detail that environment, then I’m taking away something from them [designers]. I’m taking away their creativity and their ability to have input themselves, not just to follow what the playwright has written. So I do a minimum set description and let the designers create within that. AUGUST WILSON
Dramatic action, therefore, is not with a view to the representation of character: character comes in as subsidiary to the actions. ARISTOTLE
