Playwriting is the last great bastion of the individual writer. It's exciting precisely because it's where the money isn't. Money goes to safety, to consensus. It's not individualism.
Interpretation
Playwriting represents a pure expression of individual creativity, flourishing in an environment that often shuns commercial gain.
In this quote, John Patrick Shanley highlights the unique position of playwriting as a form of art that allows writers to express their individual voices and perspectives. He contrasts the world of playwriting with other forms of writing where monetary gain often influences content, suggesting that true individualism can thrive in the relatively less lucrative field of theater, where artists can take risks and innovate without the pressure of conforming to popular consensus.
In practice
In a speech at a local theater festival, one might quote this to underscore the value of artistic integrity.
I am not a courageous person by nature. I have simply discovered that, at certain key moments in this life, you must find courage in yourself, in order to move forward and live. It is like a muscle and it must be exercised, first a little, and then more and more. All the really exciting things possible during the course of a lifetime require a little more courage than we currently have. A deep breath and a leap.
I think that certainty is a closed door, It's the end of the conversation. Doubt is an open door.
Everybody comes to film differently; everybody has different backgrounds. Just find whatever your lane is naturally. Don't try to force yourself into someone else's vision or try to tell a story that you're not passionate about.
Seeing yourself in print is such an amazing concept: you can get so much attention without having to actually show up somewhere... You don't have to dress up, for instance, and you can't hear them boo you right away.
I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still.
Plot, rules, nor even poetry, are not half so great beauties in tragedy or comedy as a just imitation of nature, of character, of the passions and their operations in diversified situations.
If you like my poems let them _x000D_ walk in the evening, a little behind you
My early childhood equipped me really well for my portrait work: The quick encounter, where you are not going to know the subject for very long. These days I am much more comfortable with the fifteen minute relationship, than I am with a life long relationship.
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