What I hate about kitchen-sink dramas is [this idea] that the set is real, therefore you're going to be seeing truth. You have to earn truth. Truth can't be a part of the fact that people appear to talk that way and live in that room. You're looking for the poetry in something, and I don't mean poetry in the fancy sense. Naturalism believes by just replicating a thing you give the truth, rather than earning the truth.
Interpretation
The quote critiques kitchen-sink dramas by stating that true representation and truth in art must be earned, not just replicated.
John Guare's quote emphasizes the importance of depth and authenticity in artistic expression, particularly in the context of kitchen-sink dramas. He argues that simply imitating reality or creating a seemingly realistic setting does not guarantee that the art will convey genuine truth. Instead, he suggests that true artistic expression requires a deeper exploration and understanding of the human condition, where the nuances and complexities of life are turned into something poetic, transcending mere replication of reality.
In practice
In a film discussion about the authenticity of emotional representation among characters.
You must keep people happy backstage because that affects what's onstage. During a run, the playwright feels like the mayor of a small town filled with noble creatures who have to get out there and make it brand new every night. When a production works, it's unlike any other joy in the world.
Do people choose the art that inspires them — do they think it over, decide they might prefer the fabulous to the real? For me, it was those early readings of fairy tales that made me who I was as a reader and, later on, as a storyteller.
The artist who does not feel completely satisfied by elegant lines, by harmonious colors, and by a beautiful succession of chords does not understand the art of music.
Poems, for me, begin as a social engagement. I want to establish a kind of sociability or even hospitality at the beginning of a poem. The title and the first few lines are a kind of welcome mat where I am inviting the reader inside.
The contemporary thing in art and literature is the thing which doesn't make enough difference to the people of that generation so that they can accept it or reject it.
That is the artist's job: take mineral rock from dark silent earth, transform it into shining light-reflecting form from sky.
Censorship is the thing that stops you doing what you want to do, and what writers want to talk about is what they do, not what stops them doing it.
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