Do you know what a playwright is? A playwright is someone who lets his guts hang out on the stage.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that democracy provides us with choices, yet we always end up with the outcomes that reflect our collective character and decisions.
Edward Albee's quote reflects the complex relationship between personal responsibility and democratic governance. While democracy offers the freedom to pursue a wide range of desires, it ultimately holds us accountable for the consequences of our choices—implying that the state of our society is a direct mirror of our shared values and actions. In essence, it emphasizes that we reap what we sow as a community, highlighting the importance of civic engagement and moral responsibility in shaping our reality.
Themes
DemocracyResponsibilitySocietyChoicesValuesAccountability
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about civic engagement, one could say, 'As Edward Albee said, we always end up with exactly what we deserve.'
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
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
I think we should all live on the precipe of life, as fully and as dangerously as possible. Everyone should make the assumption that they're going through life only once. Tomorrow we die. Why not take chances, extend yourself? How awful it is when a person comes to the end of life full of regret.
Edward AlbeeRead
Similar quotes
People are composed of many things, and in my work, what influences me is the complexity of people - the chiaroscuro of dark and light. When I play a strong guy, I try to find, where is he weak? And, conversely, when I play a weak guy, where is he strong?
Kirk DouglasRead
Forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.
Lawrence M. KraussRead
Labour is ... not the only source of material wealth, i.e, of the use-values it produces. As William Petty says, Labour is the father of material wealth, the earth is its mother.
Karl MarxRead
Indeed, theological discourse offers its strange jubilation only to the strict extent that it permits and, dangerously, demands of it wokman that he speak beyond his means, precisely because he does not speak of himself. Hence the danger of a speech that, in a sense, speaks against the one who lends himself to it. One must obtain forgiveness for every essay in theology. In all senses.
Jean-Luc MarionRead
In fact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
It is war that wastes a nations wealth, chokes its industries, kills its flower, narrows its sympathies, condemns it to be governed by adventurers, and leaves the puny, deformed, and unmanly to breed the next generation.
George SantayanaRead