I Don't Want To Be A Playwright,

Ideas Emerge From Plays, Not The Other Way Around.

The Great Thing For Me, Now, Is That Writing Has Become More And More Interesting. Not Just As A Craft But As A Way Into Things That Are Not Described. It's A Thing Of Discovering. That's When Writing Is Really Working. You're On The Trail Of Something And You Don't Quite Know What It Is.

It's Hard To Explain Why Exactly, But I Think That When I Began Writing Plays, It Was From An Actor's Point Of View More Than Anything. I Had The Feeling That If You Put Yourself In The Position Of The Actor On Stage And Write From That Perspective, It Would Give You A Certain Advantage In Terms Of Being Inside Of The Play.

I Was In The War. I Know How To Kill. I Was Over There. I Know How To Do It. I've Done It Before. It's No Big Deal. You Just Make An Adjustment. You Convince Yourself It's All Right. That's All. It's Easy. You Just Slaughter Them.

I've Come To Feel That If I Can't Make Something Happen In Under An Hour And A Half, It's Not Going To Happen In A Compelling Way In A Three-hour Play.