Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.
Edward AlbeeRead
One must let the play happen to one; one must let the mind loose to respond as it will, to receive impressions, to sense rather than know, to gather rather than immediately understand.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of openness to experiences and letting one's mind engage with art without immediate rational understanding.
Edward Albee's quote speaks to the value of experiencing art and life in a spontaneous, receptive manner. It suggests that rather than rushing to analyze or categorize our experiences, we should allow ourselves to be moved by them, gathering insights and impressions on a deeper, perhaps more instinctual, level. This perspective invites us to appreciate the nuances of art and our perceptions without the constraints of immediate analysis.
Themes
ArtExperienceImpressionSpontaneityUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the importance of emotional responses in art appreciation.
More from Edward Albee
All quotes →When a critic sets himself up as an arbiter of morality, a judge of the matter and not the manner of a work, he is no longer a critic; he is a censor.
Edward AlbeeRead
I am convinced that no one is fully educated without a full grounding in the arts.
Edward AlbeeRead
Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it.
Edward AlbeeRead
Remember one thing about democracy. We can have anything we want and at the same time, we always end up with exactly what we deserve.
Edward AlbeeRead
Your source material is the people you know, not those you don't know, but every character is an extension of the author's own personality.
Edward AlbeeRead
Similar quotes
But fantasy kills imagination, pornography is death to art.
Iris MurdochRead
The reality of the final moment, just before shooting [the scene], is so powerful that all previous analysis must yield before the impressions you receive under these circumstances, and unless you use this feedback to your positive advantage, unless you adjust to it, adapt to it and accept the sometimes terrifying weaknesses it can expose, you can never realize the most out of your film.
Stanley KubrickRead
The novel I am constantly writing is always the same one, and it might be described as a variously sliced-up or torn-apart book of myself.
Robert WalserRead
When we talk about music, we talk about our reaction to it. One person might say that music is so poetic, while another says it's all mathematics. Yet another might say it's about sensuality, and so on. That's all true. But music is not just one of these things. It's everything all at once.
Daniel BarenboimRead
Never try to convey your idea to the audience - it is a thankless and senseless task. Show them life, and they'll find within themselves the means to assess and appreciate it.
Andrei TarkovskyRead
And the night shall be filled with music, And the cares, that infest the day, Shall fold their tents like the Arabs, and silently steal away.
Henry Wadsworth LongfellowRead