Latest John Guare Quotes from Interviews

• Like a dog, a playwright lives in an eternal present and a play is never closed.

  John Guare

  Dog, Playwright

  Source: deadline.com

• Oh god, I'd just hate it if a certain dramaturg got a hold of a Pinter play, for example, which are all mystery and all music. That's how the life get's sucked out of plays.

  John Guare

  Hate, Play, Example

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• There's no such thing as a perfect play. Sometimes you have to protect the life of the play.

  John Guare

  Play, Perfect, Sometimes

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• People rewrite the play so much to make it palatable to the audience, to make something clear, that they just deaden it. Like it was left it in the oven too long.

  John Guare

  Play, Long, People

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• I'm sure there are some good dramaturgs but I've never worked with one.

  John Guare

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• I think that some of these plays are lost in this new horror called development, which is a place for dramaturgs to say "let me tell you what your play means," and the life gets sucked out of a play.

  John Guare

  Mean, Thinking, Play

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• You can't be a sort of pioneer.

  John Guare

  Pioneers

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• I think a playwright must be his own dramaturg.

  John Guare

  Thinking, Playwright

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• 1975 is as much a historical document as 1803.

  John Guare

  Historical, Documents

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• The great risk is always saying, "how will I communicate what I'm trying to get across to a room full of strangers sitting in the dark watching a stage?"

  John Guare

  Dark, Risk, Trying

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• New Orleans was a thrilling place of all kinds of races, it was a dangerous place. It was really and truly the only international city on the continent of North America. There were all different races and everything was celebrated, and it was a place of difference, and everybody was different and it was so odd, the minute that America took over, the minute that the Louisiana territory became part of the United States of America, instantly you were either black or white. There was no nuance. and so a free man of color who could own property was suddenly not allowed to.

  John Guare

  Men, Color, Cities

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• The power of the past to still dominate our thinking today.

  John Guare

  Past, Thinking, Today

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Everyone talks about America, this great country. You hear, "I'm more patriotic than you are. No, I'm more patriotic!" But how few people know the history of this country and how we came into being. That's the part that just amazed me.

  John Guare

  Country, Patriotic, America

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Every play is so important. It's a record of what life was like at the time you wrote that play or that book.

  John Guare

  Book, Play, Important

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Eugene O'Neil created an American theater, and Tennessee Williams taught it how to sing.

  John Guare

  Tennessee, Taught, Theater

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• James Joyce wrote the definitive work about Dublin while he was living in Switzerland. We're all where we come from. We all have our roots.

  John Guare

  Roots, Switzerland, Where We Come

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• I'm an American playwright. Tennessee Williams got in all our DNA.

  John Guare

  Dna, Tennessee, Playwright

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

• Sometimes you have to protect the life of the play. It seems like spelling out mysterious, musical details can destroy a play by making the motivations too clear, too simplex.

  John Guare

  Motivation, Play, Musical

  "John Guare: Strangers in the Dark". Interview with Tana Wojczuk, www.guernicamag.com. March 19, 2012.

• I think a playwright must be his own dramaturg. I believe in a theater where the director and the playwright work together to create what they need.

  John Guare

  Believe, Thinking, Working Together

  "John Guare: Strangers in the Dark". Interview with Tana Wojczuk, www.guernicamag.com. March 19, 2012.

• You can't kind of take away, you either do or you don't. If you kind of take away something you're a failure.

  John Guare

  Kind, Ifs

  "John Guare: Strangers in the Dark". Interview with Tana Wojczuk, www.guernicamag.com. March 19, 2012.

• I don't think about taking a risk. I think about how far can I go. How can I make myself. What are the risks I must create.

  John Guare

  Thinking, Risk

  "John Guare: Strangers in the Dark". Interview with Tana Wojczuk, www.guernicamag.com. March 19, 2012.

• You cannot write to resonate twenty or thirty or forty years from now. You only can write for that very day, but whatever happens is all gravy.

  John Guare

  Writing, Years, Twenties

  "John Guare: Strangers in the Dark". Interview with Tana Wojczuk, www.guernicamag.com. March 19, 2012.

• You can read ten books and finally come across one detail, and it's like, "now everything else makes sense. Now I know where I am."

  John Guare

  Book, Details, Make Sense

  "John Guare: Strangers in the Dark". Interview with Tana Wojczuk, www.guernicamag.com. March 19, 2012.

• You don't push the button that says "Now I will write something that resonates in time." You don't know. It's what happens after a play is finished.

  John Guare

  Writing, Play, Buttons

  "John Guare: Strangers in the Dark". Interview with Tana Wojczuk, www.guernicamag.com. March 19, 2012.

• We're all where we come from. We all have our roots.

  John Guare

  Roots, Where We Come

  "John Guare: Strangers in the Dark". Interview with Tana Wojczuk, www.guernicamag.com. March 19, 2012.

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