One Has Always Got To Be Terribly

I've Seen An Awful Lot Of Plays That I'd Read Before They Were Put Into Production And Been Shocked By What's Happened To Them. In The Attempt To Make Them Straightforward And Commercially Successful, A Lot Of Things Go Out The Window.

Every Writer's Got To Pay Some Attention, I Suppose, To What His Critics Say Because Theirs Is A Reflection Of What The Audience Feels About His Work.

In The Thirties A Whole School Of Criticism Bogged Down Intellectually In Those Agitprop, Social-realistic Days. A Play Had To Be Progressive. A Number Of Plays By Playwrights Who Were Thought Very Highly Of Then - They Were Very Bad Playwrights - Were Highly Praised Because Their Themes Were Intellectually And Politically Proper. This Intellectual Morass Is Very Dangerous, It Seems To Me. A Form Of Censorship.

I Have Been Both Overpraised And Underpraised. 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.

You're Alive Only Once, As Far As We Know, And What Could Be Worse Than Getting To The End Of Your Life And Realizing You Hadn't Lived It?