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1667 Playwright Quotes

There are some screw-ups headed your way. I wish I could tell you that there was a trick to avoiding the screw-ups... but they're coming for ya. It's a combination of life being unpredictable, and you being super dumb.

Avoiding Being Combination Coming
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I love writing but hate starting. The page is awfully white, and it says, 'You may have fooled some of the people some of the time, but those days are over, giftless. I'm not your agent, and I'm not your mommy; I'm a white piece of paper. You wanna dance with me?' and I really, really don't. I'll go peaceable-like.

Agent Dance Days Fooled
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I am all for everyone having a voice; I just don't think everyone has earned the microphone. And that's what the Internet has done.

Am Done Earned Everyone
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I think socializing on the Internet is to socializing what reality TV is to reality

I Think Internet Reality Reality TV
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I am truly at my happiest not when I am writing an aria for an actor or making a grand political or social point. I am at my happiest when I've figured out a fun way for somebody to slip on a banana peel.

Actor Am Banana Figured
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I don't have a great instrument. I don't have the kind of ungodly control over my voice and body that great actors have. And I've worked with enough great actors to know that I'm not one.

Actor Body Control Enough
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My parents took me to see plays, starting from when I was very little. Oftentimes, I was too young to understand. I don't know what my parents were thinking - 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' when I was eight years old, that kind of thing. So lots of times, I didn't understand what was going on, but I just loved the sound of dialogue.

Afraid Dialogue Eight Going
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I've loved every minute I've spent in television. And I've had much more failure, as traditionally measured, than success in television. I've done four shows, and only one of them was the 'West Wing.'

Done Every Failure Four
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When a movie is being rolled out, the studio publicists and all our individual publicists get together and come up with bullet points and talking points - 'Make sure you stay away from this,' and 'Don't say that quite that way, because that quote can be taken out of context,' and that kind of thing.

Away Because Being Bullet
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If I am writing a movie and I am stuck, I can call the studio and tell them it's delayed. You can't do that with television - you have air dates to meet.

Air Am Call Dates
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I spend most of my days pacing around, muttering that I have no ideas, feeling like I'm walking a plank.

Around Days Feeling Ideas
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If the characters on 'The West Wing' were watching a TV show wherein a character like Trump was leading in the polls, they wouldn't find it believable.

Believable Character Characters Find
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The properties of people and the properties of character have almost nothing to do with each other. They really don't. I know it seems like they do because we look alike, but people don't speak in dialogue. Their lives don't unfold in a series of scenes that form a narrative arc.

Alike Almost Almost Nothing Arc
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The rules of drama are very much separate from the properties of life. I think that's especially true of Shakespeare.

Drama I Think Life Much
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I've got plenty of quirks. I go to an office early in the morning. Early in the morning is really good writing time. I take anywhere between six to eight showers a day. I'm not exaggerating. I'm not a germaphobe: it's all about a fresh start.

About Anywhere Between Day
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Not all paintings are abstract; they're not all Jackson Pollock. There's value in a photograph of a man alone on a boat at sea, and there is value in painting of a man alone on a boat at sea. In the painting, the painting has more freedom to express an idea, more latitude in being able to elicit certain emotion.

Able Abstract Alone Being
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When I write something, I want the best director to direct it. And that's not going to be me. So when David Fincher comes along and wants to direct 'The Social Network,' when Bennett Miller comes along and wants to direct 'Moneyball,' or when Danny Boyle wants to direct 'Jobs'? Hallelujah. I want them directing it.

Along Best Danny David
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While I was doing 'The Newsroom,' I always had the news on on different networks on different TVs around my house and around my office.

Always Around Different Doing
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The first thing I wrote was a one-act play that got accepted at a one-act play festival, and I was in it along with Nathan Lane and a couple of other very good actors.

Accepted Actor Along Couple
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I'll get cast occasionally as sort of the jerk version of myself, and I have fun doing that. But it's really better for everyone if I stay behind the camera.

Behind Better Camera Cast
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I consider plot a necessary intrusion on what I really want to do, which is write snappy dialogue.

Consider Dialogue Necessary Plot
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Television is a visual medium. You have to create some kind of visual interest. And it's entertainment for your eyes.
Create Entertainment Eyes Interest
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Before thy King speaks, thee hath no food; After thy King speaks, thee hath no food and no freedom; The Words of thy King hath brought thee hunger and bondage.

King Freedom Food Hunger
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Don't be hunting returnees like Antelopes because of COVID-19

Hunting Like Returnee Antelopes
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Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people.

Because Ignores Most People
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I don't like writing essays or theory.
Essays Like Theory Writing
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I want to speak, to sing to total strangers. It's my way of talking to the world.

Sing Speak Strangers Talking
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Stadium rock and commercial rock are the opposite of what poetry needs. An audience of around 200 is ideal for poetry.

Around Audience Commercial Ideal
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Written poetry is different. Best thing is to see it in performance first, then read it. Performance is more provocative.

Best Different First More
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I use the language I use to my friends. They wouldn't believe me if I used some high-flown literary language. I want them to believe me.

Believe Friends Language Literary
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The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
Biggest BiggestProblem Communication Illusion
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It is a curious sensation: the sort of pain that goes mercifully beyond our powers of feeling. When your heart is broken, your boats are burned: nothing matters any more. It is the end of happiness and the beginning of peace.

Any BeginningBeyond Boats Broken
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A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.

Doing Honorable Life Making
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We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
Because Grow Old Playing
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You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?'

Dream IDream Never Say
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You use a glass mirror to see your face; you use works of art to see your soul.

Art Face Glass Mirror
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I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

Adds Conversation Myself Often
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The faults of the burglar are the qualities of the financier

Burglar Faults Financier Qualities
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Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.

Any Cease Ceases Die
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Better keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you must see the world.
Better Bright Clean Keep
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England and America are two countries separated by the same language.

America Countries England Language
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Few of us have vitality enough to make any of our instincts imperious.

Any Enough Few Instincts
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Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
Dread Liberty Means Men
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All great truths begin as blasphemies.

Begin Great Truths
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Everything happens to everybody sooner or later if there is time enough.

Enough Everybody Everything Happens
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A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic.

Epidemic Fashion Induced Nothing
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The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

Believer Drunken Fact Happier
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No question is so difficult to answer as that to which the answer is obvious.

Answer Difficult NoQuestion Obvious
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Perhaps the greatest social service that can be rendered by anybody to the country and to mankind is to bring up a family.

Anybody Bring Country Family
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If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.
Cannot Dance Family Get
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