I Don't Want To Be A Playwright,

I Don't Want To Be A Playwright, I Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star.

There's No Way To Escape The Fact That We've Grown Up In A Violent Culture, We Just Can't Get Away From It, It's Part Of Our Heritage. I Think Part Of It Is That We've Always Felt Somewhat Helpless In The Face Of This Vast Continent. Helplessness Is Answered In Many Ways, But One Of Them Is Violence.

In Many Of My Plays, There Was A Kind Of Autobiographical Character In The Form Of A Son Or Young Man. The Purpose Of It, Of Course, Was To Write About Myself. That Character Was Always The Least Fully Realized. Eighteen Years Later, You Realize, That's What He Was About.

It's Hard To Explain Why Exactly, But I Think That When I Began Writing Plays, It Was From An Actor's Point Of View More Than Anything. I Had The Feeling That If You Put Yourself In The Position Of The Actor On Stage And Write From That Perspective, It Would Give You A Certain Advantage In Terms Of Being Inside Of The Play.

It's Funny, In A Way The Actor Is A Writer. It's Not Like The Two Things Are So Separate As To Be Like Apples And Oranges. The Writer And The Actor Are One.