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Like Every Writer, I Am Asked Where My Work Originates, And If I Knew I Would Go There More Often To Find More.
-Arthur Miller
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Like Every Writer, I

Arthur Miller
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Like Every Writer, I Am Asked Where My Work Originates, And If I Knew I Would Go There More Often To Find More.

Understanding the Quote: "like every writer, i am asked where my work originates, and if..."

This quote by Arthur Miller reflects deeply on the theme of ifs. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Ifs, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Arthur Miller interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller is celebrated for insightful thoughts on ifs and motivation. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Ifs
More From Arthur Miller
I Know You're No Worse Than Most Men But I Thought You Were Better. I Never Saw You As A Man. I Saw You As My Father.
Father
Men
Saws
I Don't Say He's A Great Man. Willie Loman Never Made A Lot Of Money. His Name Was Never In The Paper. He's Not The Finest Character That Ever Lived. But He's A Human Being, And A Terrible Thing Is Happening To Him. So Attention Must Be Paid. He's Not To Be Allowed To Fall In His Grave Like An Old Dog. Attention, Attention Must Finally Be Paid To Such A Person.
Dog
Fall
Character
The Best Of Our Theater Is Standing On Tiptoe, Striving To See Over The Shoulders Of Father And Mother. The Worst Is Exploiting And Wallowing In The Self-pity Of Adolescence And Obsessive Keyhole Sexuality. The Way Out, As The Poet Says, Is Always Through.
Mother
Father
Self
A Play's An Interpretation. It Is Not A Report. And That Is The Beginning Of Its Poetry Because, In Order To Interpret, You Have To Distort Toward A Symbolic Construction Of What Happened, And As That Distortion Takes Place, You Begin To Leave Out And Overemphasize And Consequently Deliver Up Life As A Unity Rather Than As A Chaos, And Any Such Attempt, The More Intense It Is, The More Poetic It Becomes.
Order
Play
Unity
More Weight -giles Corey-
Weight
Until An Hour Before The Devil Fell, God Thought Him Beautiful In Heaven.
Beauty
Beautiful
Heaven
Great Stones They Lay Upon His Chest Until He Plead Aye Or Nay. They Say He Give Them But Two Words. "more Weight," He Says. And Died.
Two
Giving
Weight
The Success Of A Play, Especially One's First Success, Is Somewhat Like Pushing Against A Door Which Is Suddenly Opened That Was Always Securely Shut Until Then. For Myself, The Experience Was Invigorating. It Suddenly Seemed That The Audience Was A Mass Of Blood Relations, And I Sensed A Warmth In The World That Had Not Been There Before. It Made It Possible To Dream Of Daring More And Risking More.
Dream
Doors
Blood
My Plays Are Always Involved With Society, But I'm Writing About People, Too, And It's Clear Over The Years That Audiences Understand Them And Care About Them. The Political Landscape Changes, The Issues Change, But The People Are Still There. People Don't Really Change That Much.
Writing
Issues
Years
I Think It's A Mistake To Ever Look For Hope Outside Of One's Self.
Mistake
Thinking
Self
The American Dream Is The Largely Unacknowledged Screen In Front Of Which All American Writing Plays Itself Out.
Dream
Writing
Play
God Really Does Take Our Work Seriously: It Is Wrong, It Is A Sin, To Accept Or Remain In A Position That You Know Is A Mismatch For You. Perhaps That's A Form Of Sin You've Never Considered - The Sin Of Staying In The Wrong Job. But God Did Not Place You On The Earth To Waste Away Your Years In Labor That Does Not Employ His Design Or Purpose For Your Life, No Matter How Much You May Be Getting Paid For It.
Jobs
Years
Design
I've Always Made A Point Of Not Wasting My Life, And Every Time I Come Back Here I Know That All I've Done Is To Waste My Life.
Done
Waste
Made
An Era Can Be Said To End When Its Basic Illusions Are Exhausted.
Dream
Eras
Exhausted
The Problem Was To Sustain At Any Cost The Feeling You Had In The Theater That You Were Watching A Real Person, Yes, But An Intense Condensation Of His Experience, Not Simply A Realistic Series Of Episodes.
Real
Feelings
Cost
As A Writer, I've Always Believed That While My Work And I Myself Are Embedded In Whatever Period I Am Writing About, Clearly I Am Sensitive To The Winds That Are Blowing In The Culture. At The Same Time, I Have Always Felt That The Issue Was Not To Deal With The Problem In The Abstract, But To Deal With The People Who Are In That Problem. The Emphasis Is On The People. The General Problem Begins To Resolve Itself Even Before The Play Is Finished.
Writing
Issues
Wind
The Very Impulse To Write Springs From An Inner Chaos Crying For Order - For Meaning.
Spring
Writing
Order
The Brain Heals The Past Like An Injury.
Past
Brain
Injury
Few Of Us Can Easily Surrender Our Belief That Society Must Somehow Make Sense. The Thought That The State Has Lost Its Mind And Is Punishing So Many Innocent People Is Intolerable. And So The Evidence Has To Be Internally Denied.
People
Mind
Liberty
... Vulgarity Has No Nation.
Vulgarity
Nations
Poor Brain! How Helplessly It Dissolves When Willing Eyes Meet And The Nose Warms To Those Old Jungle Scents.
Eye
Brain
Noses
When Irrational Terror Takes To Itself The Fiat Of Moral Goodness Somebody Has To Die. ... No Man Lives Who Has Not Got A Panic Button, And When It Is Pressed By The Clean White Hand Of Moral Duty, A Certain Murderous Train Is Set In Motion.
Men
White
Hands
It Is Rare For People To Be Asked The Question Which Puts Them Squarely In Front Of Themselves
People
Fronts
Work A Lifetime To Pay Off A House You Finally Own It And There's Nobody To Live In It.
House
Pay
Lifetime
The World Is An Oyster But You Don't Crack It Open On A Mattress
Oysters
Cracks
World
The Closer A Man Approaches Tragedy The More Intense Is His Concentration Of Emotion Upon The Fixed Point Of His Commitment, Which Is To Say The Closer He Approaches What In Life We Call Fanaticism.
Life
Commitment
Tragedy
Nevertheless, One Learned Very Early That Books Had To Be Respected; They Were All Putative Bibles And To Some Small Degree Had A Share In Holiness.
Book
Degrees
Holiness
The Jungle Is Dark But Full Of Diamonds, Willy.
Dark
Diamond
Salesman
...an Everlasting Funeral Marches Round Your Heart.
Heart
Funeral
March
The Structure Of A Play Is Always The Story Of How The Birds Came Home To Roost.
Home
Writing
Editing
But We Are Mostly What We Are, And The Turtle Stretching Toward Delicious Buds On High Does Not Lighten His Carapace By His Resolve.
Turtles
Doe
Bud
The Task Of The Real Intellectual Consists Of Analyzing Illusions In Order To Discover Their Causes.
Real
Order
Intellectual
Immortality Is Like Trying To Carve Your Initials In A Block Of Ice In The Middle Of July.
Life
Block
July
Hale, With A Tasty Love Of Intellectual Pursuit
Crucible
Intellectual
Pursuit
I Regard The Theatre As A Serious Business, One That Makes Or Should Make Man More Human, Which Is To Say, Less Alone.
Men
Theatre
Serious Business
Everything We Are Is At Every Moment Alive In Us.
Alive
Moments
And Yet One Can't Forever Stand On The Shore; At Some Point, Even If Filled With Indecision, Skepticism, Reservation And Doubt, You Either Jump In Or Concede That Life Is Forever Elsewhere.
Forever
Doubt
Life Is
... So Many Tremendous Decisions In Life Are Made Because It Is Five O'clock.
Decision
Clock
Made
The Mission Of The Theatre, After All, Is To Change, To Raise The Consciousness Of People To Their Human Possibilities.
People
Theatre
Consciousness
Studies Show That A Trusting Workplace Increases Employees' Level Of Happiness, Work Effort, Productivity, And Engagement. It Also Provides An Environment That Encourages Open Communication And Promotes People To Share Their Ideas.
Happy
Trust
Communication
I Have Made More Friends For American Culture Than The State Department. Certainly I Have Made Fewer Enemies, But That Isn't Very Difficult.
Enemy
Culture
States
And Old Dave, He'd Go Up To His Room, Y'understand, Put On His Green Velvet Slippers - I'll Never Forget - And Pick Up His Phone And Call The Buyers, And Without Leaving His Room, At The Age Of Eighty-four, He Made His Living. And When I Saw That, I Realized That Selling Was The Greatest Career A Man Could Want.
Men
Phones
Careers
If I See An Ending, I Can Work Backward.
Writing
Ifs
I Can
Above All Else, Tragedy Requires The Finest Appreciation By The Writer Of Cause And Effect.
Appreciation
Tragedy
Causes
Try To Keep The Rebel Artist Alive In You, No Matter How Attractive Or Exhausting The Temptation.
Artist
Temptation
Trying
Theater Is A Very Changeable Art. It Responds To The Moment In History The Way The Newspaper Does, And There's No Predicting What To Come Up With Next.
Art
Next
Doe
Willie Was A Salesman. And For A Salesman, There Is No Rock Bottom To Life?. He's A Man Way Out There In The Blue, Riding On A Smile And A Shoeshine. And When They Start Not Smiling Back - That's An Earthquake.
Smile
Men
Earthquakes
... If You Love Your Country Why Is It Necessary To Hate Other Countries?
Country
Hate
Love You
Be Liked And You Will Never Want.
Friendship
Want
Salesman
The Famous Are Balloons Far Up In The Sky, To Be Envied For Their Quiet Freedom Or Shot Down As Enemies.
Sky
Enemy
Balloons
Charley: He Won't Starve. None A Them Starve. Forget About Him. Willy: Then What Have I Got To Remember?
Remember
Forget
Can Anyone Remember Love? It's Like Trying To Summon Up The Smell Of Roses In A Cellar. You Might See A Rose, But Never The Perfume.
Best Friend
Smell
Rose
When The Guns Roar, The Arts Die.
Art
Gun
Dies
If You Complain Of People Being Shot Down In The Streets, Of The Absence Of Communication Or Social Responsibility, Of The Rise Of Everyday Violence Which People Have Become Accustomed To, And The Dehumanization Of Feelings, Then The Ultimate Development On An Organized Social Level Is The Concentration Camp... The Concentration Camp Is The Final Expression Of Human Separateness And Its Ultimate Consequence. It Is Organized Abandonment.
Communication
Responsibility
Expression
The World Is Always Ending; The Exact Date Depends On When You Came Into It.
World
Depends
Where Choice Begins, Paradise Ends, Innocence Ends, For What Is Paradise But The Absence Of Any Need To Choose This Action?
Choices
Needs
Paradise
An Idol Tells People Exactly What To Believe, God Presents Them With Choices They Have To Make For Themselves. The Difference Is Far From Insignificant; Before The Idol Men Remain Dependent Children, Before God They Are Burdened And At The Same Time Liberated To Participate In The Decisions Of Endless Creation.
God
Children
Believe
A Character Is Defined By The Kinds Of Challenges He Cannot Walk Away From. And By Those He Has Walked Away From That Cause Him Remorse.
Character
Challenges
Causes
The Culture Of The United States Has Flooded The World. It's The Inevitable Result Of A Powerful Culture, Art. We've Got An Instinctive Touch When It Comes To The Popular Mind Because We've Had No Aristocracy. It Is A Democratic Country. And We Know Without Knowing It, Without Bothering To Understand It, How To Reach Ordinary People, Sometimes With The Most Vulgar, Worthless Junk On The Face Of The Earth, But We Know How To Do It [laughter].
Country
Art
Laughter
The Devil Is Precise; The Marks Of His Presence Are Definite As Stone.
Crucible
Devil
Stones
The Enemy Is Within, And Within Stays Within, And We Can't Get Out Of Within.
Enemy
A Child's Spirit Is Like A Child, You Can Never Catch It By Running After It; You Must Stand Still, And, For Love, It Will Soon Itself Come Back.
Running
Children
Romance
There Is A Kind Of Perverse Unity Forming Among Us, Born, I Think, Of The Discontent Of All Classes Of People With The Endless Frustration Of Life.
Frustration
Thinking
Class
A Lot Of My Work Goes To The Center Of Where We Belong--if There Is Any Root To Life -because Nowadays The Family Is Broken Up, And People Don't Live In The Same Place For Very Long.
Roots
Long
People
Never Fight Fair With A Stranger, Boy. You'll Never Get Out Of The Jungle That Way.
Fighting
Boys
Way
People Do Look To Others For Some Leadership, And It's Not Bad For Them To Supply It When They Feel That Way.
People
Looks
Way
He's Not The Finest Character That Ever Lived. But He's A Human Being, And A Terrible Thing Is Happening To Him. So Attention Must Be Paid.
Failure
Character
Attention
It Is Time That We, Who Are Without Kings, Took Up This Bright Thread Of Our History And Followed It To The Only Place It Can Possibly Lead In Our Time-the Heart And Spirit Of The Average Man.
Kings
Heart
Men
Well, I Spent Six Or Seven Years After High School Trying To Work Myself Up. Shipping Clerk, Salesman, Business Of One Kind Or Another. And It's A Measly Manner Of Existence. To Get On That Subway On The Hot Mornings In Summer. To Devote Your Whole Life To Keeping Stock, Or Making Phone Calls, Or Selling Or Buying. To Suffer Fifty Weeks Of The Year For The Sake Of A Two-week Vacation, When All You Really Desire Is To Be Outdoors, With Your Shirt Off. And Always To Have To Get Ahead Of The Next Fella. And Still — That's How You Build A Future.
Summer
Morning
School
Suicide Kills Two People.
Suicide
Suicidal
Two
How To Live Had Started Out As An Analytical Problem Of How To Place Himself So As To Intercept The Flow Of Money In The Society.
Money
Flow
Problem
The Price Grew Out Of A Need To Reconfirm The Power Of The Past, The Seedbed Of Current Reality, And The Way To Possibly Reaffirm Cause And Effect In An Insane World.
Past
Reality
Insane World
When Today Fails To Offer The Justification For Hope, Tomorrow Becomes The Only Grail Worth Pursuing.
Memorable
Today
Tomorrow
It Occurs To Me That With All The Television People Watch, Most Of Their Acquaintances Are Actors.
People
Watches
Actors
I Am Bewildered By The Death Of Love. And My Responsibility For It.
Life
Responsibility
Bewildered
I Think The Job Of The Artist Is To Remind People Of What They Have Chosen To Forget.
Art
Jobs
Thinking
Success, Instead Of Giving Freedom Of Choice, Becomes A Way Of Life. There's No Country I've Been To Where People, When You Come Into A Room And Sit Down With Them, So Often Ask You, "what Do You Do?" And, Being American, Many's The Time I've Almost Asked That Question, Then Realized It's Good For My Soul Not To Know. For A While! Just To Let The Evening Wear On And See What I Think Of This Person Without Knowing What He Does And How Successful He Is, Or What A Failure. We're Ranking Everybody Every Minute Of The Day.
Success
Country
Thinking
The Parochial Snobbery Of These People Was Partly Responsible For Their Failure To Convert The Indians. Probably They Also Preferred To Take Land From Heathens Rather Than From Fellow Christians. At Any Rate, Very Few Indians Were Converted, And The Salem Folk Believed That The Virgin Forest Was The Devil's Last Preserve, His Home Base And The Citadel Of His Final Stand. To The Best Of Their Knowledge The American Forest Was The Last Place On Earth That Was Not Paying Homage To God.
Christian
Home
Land
When A Deposit Bottle Is Broken, You Don't Get Your Nickel Back.
Broken
Bottles
Nickels
I Realized What A Ridiculous Lie My Whole Life Has Been.
Life
Lying
Ridiculous
Pathos Truly Is The Mode For The Pessimist. But Tragedy Requires A Nicer Balance Between What Is Possible And What Is Impossible. And It Is Curious, Although Edifying, That The Plays We Revere, Century After Century, Are The Tragedies. In Them, And In Them Alone, Lies The Belief-optimistic, If You Will, In The Perfectibility Of Man.
Lying
Optimistic
Men
The Car, The Furniture, The Wife, The Children - Everything Has To Be Disposable. Because You See The Main Thing Today Is - Shopping.
Children
Shopping
Wife
Life Is An Endless, Truly Endless Struggle. There's No Time When We're Going To Arrive At A Plateau Where The Whole Thing Gets Sorted. It's A Struggle In The Way Every Plant Has To Find It's Own Way To Stand Up Straight. A Lot Of The Time It's A Failure. And Yet It's Not A Failure If Some Enlightenment Comes From It.
Spiritual
Struggle
Enlightenment
The Camera Has Its Own Kind Of Consciousness; In The Lens The Garden Of Eden Itself Would Become Ever So Slightly Too Perfect.
Photography
Garden
Eden
In A Dream, We Are Simply Confronted With Various Loaded Symbols, And Where One Is Exhausted, It Gives Way To Another.
Dream
Giving
Way
A Small Man Can Be Just As Exhausted As A Great Man.
Men
Exhausted
Small Man
The Best Work That Anybody Ever Writes Is The Work That Is On The Verge Of Embarrassing Him, Always.
Writing
Embarrassing
Best Work
If I Have To Be Alone I Want To Be By Myself.
Want
Ifs
By Whatever Means It Is Accomplished, The Prime Business Of A Play Is To Arouse The Passions Of Its Audience So That By The Route Of Passion May Be Opened Up New Relationships Between A Man And Men, And Between Men And Man. Drama Is Akin To The Other Inventions Of Man In That It Ought To Help Us To Know More, And Not Merely To Spend Our Feelings.
Business
Drama
Passion
Those Who Formally Rule Take Their Signals And Commands Not From The Electorate As A Body, But From A Small Group Of Men. This Group Will Be Called The Establishment. It Exists Even Though That Existence Is Stoutly Denied. It Is One Of The Secrets Of The American Social Order... A Second Secret Is The Fact That The Existence Of The Establishment - The Ruling Class - Is Not Supposed To Be Discussed.
Men
Command Not
Order
A Man Is Not A Bird, To Come And Go With The Springtime.
Men
Bird
Springtime
I'm The End Of The Line; Absurd And Appalling As It May Seem, Serious New York Theater Has Died In My Lifetime.
New York
Lines
May
You Can't Eat The Orange And Throw The Peel Away - A Man Is Not A Piece Of Fruit.
Men
Orange
Pieces
There Is A Misconception Of Tragedy With Which I Have Been Struck In Review After Review, And In Many Conversations With Writers And Readers Alike. It Is The Idea That Tragedy Is Of Necessity Allied To Pessimism.
Ideas
Tragedy
Pessimism
Everybody Likes A Kidder, But Nobody Lends Him Money.
Humor
Likes
Willy Loman: I Don't Want Change, I Want Swiss Cheese!
Want
Cheese
Swiss Cheese
The Play Is Really A Kind Of Nightmare. It Ought To Flow Rapidly And Effortlessly From One Moment To Another. In London, We Had Difficulty With The Set, Which Required Too Much Effort To Move Around. Having Gotten The Benefit Of Seeing It Done Once, I Wanted To Work On The Script, To Make It Sharper And More Pointed.
Moving
Play
Effort
Let You Look Sometimes For The Goodness In Me, And Judge Me Not.
Judging
Looks
Sometimes
Certainly The Most Diverse, If Minor, Pastime Of Literary Life Is The Game Of Find The Author.
Games
Life Is
Pastime
Memory Inevitably Romanticizes, Pressing Reality To Recede Like Pain.
Pain
Memories
Reality
After All The Highways, And The Trains, And The Appointments, And The Years, You End Up Worth More Dead Than Alive.
Years
Alive
Ends
There Are Many Who Stay Away From Church These Days Because You Hardly Ever Mention God Any More.
Crucible
Atheism
Church
Betrayal Is The Only Truth That Sticks.
Life
Heartbreak
Betrayal
Proctor, His Mind Wild, Breathless: I Say--i Say--god Is Dead!
Mind
Breathless
God Is Dead
What Is The Most Innocent Place In Any Country? Is It Not The Insane Asylum? These People Drift Through Life Truly Innocent, Unable To See Into Themselves At All.
Country
People
Insane
...when The Government Goes Into The Business Of Destroying Trust, It Goes Into The Business Of Destroying Itself.
Government
Liberty
Destroying
Playwriting Is An Oral Art; It's Not An Art Of A Writer Expecting To Be Read But A Writer Expecting To Be Heard.
Art
Expecting
Playwriting
Man Must Shape His Tools Lest They Shape Him.
Men
Tools
Shapes
Jerusalem Is ... The Fabled City Which For The Western Mind Is As Much Dream As Stone ... A Compressed Symbol Of Our Most Sublime Aspirations Along With Our Most Disgusting, Hatefully Brainless Excursions Into Religious Bigotry And Fratricide.
Dream
Religious
Cities
Glamour, That Trans-human Aura Or Power To Attract Imitation, Is A Kind Of Vessel Into Which Dreams Are Poured, And Some Vessels Are Simply Worthier Than Others... A Beautiful Woman Can Turn Heads But Real Glamour Has A Deeper Pull... Glamour Is The Power To Rearrange People's Emotions, Which, In Effect, Is The Power To Control One's Environment.
Beautiful
Dream
Fashion
The Theater Is So Endlessly Fascinating Because It's So Accidental. It's So Much Like Life.
Theatre
Theater
Fascinating
It Is My Art. I Am Better At It Than I Ever Was. And I Will Do It As Long As I Can. When You Reach A Certain Age You Can Slough Off What Is Unnecessary And Concentrate On What Is. And Why Not?
Art
Writing
Long
Flight Reservation Systems Decide Whether Or Not You Exist. If Your Information Isn't In Their Database, Then You Simply Don't Get To Go Anywhere.
Funny
Information
Databases
Now Hell And Heaven Grapple On Our Backs And All Our Old Pretense Is Ripped Away. Aye, And God's Icy Wind Will Blow.
Blow
Wind
Heaven
I'm A Fatalist.... I Consider I Am Rejected In Principle. My Work Is And, Through My Work, I Am. If It's Accepted, It's Miraculous Or The Result Of A Misunderstanding.
Principles
Accepted
Results
In The Theater, While You Recognized That You Were Looking At A House, It Was A House In Quotation Marks. On Screen, The Quotation Marks Tend To Be Blotted Out By The Camera.
House
Cameras
Quotation Marks
I Cannot Sleep For Dreaming; I Cannot Dream But I Wake And Walk About The House As Though I'd Find You Coming Through Some Door.
Dream
Sleep
Doors
I Came Out Of A Culture In Which My Uncle, My Father - They Were All Salesmen Of One Kind Or Another. My Father Was A Manufacturer. He Also, In Effect, Had To Sell That Stuff. And If He Didn't Literally Do It, His Men Did. So, Selling Was In The Air Through My Boyhood. The Whole Idea Of Successfully Selling Was Very Important.
Uncles
Father
Men
Data Is A Lot Like Humans: It Is Born. Matures. Gets Married To Other Data, Divorced. Gets Old. One Thing That It Doesn't Do Is Die. It Has To Be Killed.
Data
Married
Born
I Figure I've Done What I Could Do, More Or Less, And Now I'm Going Back To Being A Chemical; All We Are Is A Lot Of Talking Nitrogen, You Know.
Talking
Nitrogen
Done
Well, All The Plays That I Was Trying To Write Were Plays That Would Grab An Audience By The Throat And Not Release Them, Rather Than Presenting An Emotion Which You Could Observe And Walk Away From.
Writing
Play
Trying
The Word "now" Is Like A Bomb Through The Window, And It Ticks.
Carpe Diem
Bombs
Window
He's Liked, But He's Not Well Liked.
Sarcastic
Wells
Salesman
My Conception Of The Audience Is Of A Public Each Member Of Which Is Carrying About With Him What He Thinks Is An Anxiety, Or A Hope, Or A Preoccupation Which Is His Alone And Isolates Him From Mankind And In This Respect At Least The Function Of A Play Is To Reveal Him To Himself So That He May Touch Others By Virtue Of The Revelation Of His Mutuality With Them. If Only For This Reason I Regard The Theater As A Serious Business, One That Makes Or Should Make Man More Human, Which Is To Say, Less Alone.
Business
Men
Thinking
Most Of The Time We Settle For Half And I Like It Better, Even As I Know How Wrong He Was And His Death Useless, I Tremble For I Confess That Something Peversley Pure Calls To Me From His Memory
Memories
Half
Useless
Look, We're All The Same; A Man Is A Fourteen-room House - In The Bedroom He's Asleep With His Intelligent Wife, In The Living-room He's Rolling Around With Some Bare Ass Girl, In The Library He's Paying His Taxes, In The Yard He's Raising Tomatoes And In The Cellar He's Making A Bomb To Blow It All Up.
Girl
Blow
Intelligent
Controlled Hysteria Is What's Required. To Exist Constantly In A State Of Controlled Hysteria. It's Agony. But Everyone Has Agony. The Difference Is That I Try To Take My Agony Home And Teach It To Sing.
Home
Agony
Hysteria
When Any Creativity Becomes Useful, It Is Sucked Into The Vortex Of Commercialism, And When A Thing Becomes Commercial, It Becomes The Enemy Of Man.
Success
Creativity
Men
The Apple Cannot Be Stuck Back On The Tree Of Knowledge; Once We Begin To See, We Are Doomed And Challenged To Seek The Strength To See More, Not Less.
Apples
Tree
Stuck
Americans Don't Speak Foreign Languages, By And Large. Their Interest In Anything Beyond The Borders Of The Country Is Limited. A European Of Any Cultivation Has To Speak A Couple Of Languages; He Inevitably Without Being Very Thoughtful About It Gets To Understand What Other People Think About Him.
Country
Couple
Thinking
Like Every Writer, I Am Asked Where My Work Originates, And If I Knew I Would Go There More Often To Find More.
Ifs
The Witch-hunt Was A Perverse Manifestation Of The Panic Which Set In Among All Classes When The Balance Began To Turn Toward Greater Individual Freedom. The Witch-hunt Was Not, However, A Mere Repression. It Was Also, And As Importantly, A Long Overdue Opportunity For Everyone So Inclined To Express Publicly His Guilt And Sins, Under The Cover Of Accusations Against The Victims.
Opportunity
Class
Long
Because It Is My Name! Because I Cannot Have Another In My Life! Because I Lie And Sign Myself To Lies! Because I Am Not Worth The Dust On The Feet Of Them That Hang! How May I Live Without My Name? I Have Given You My Soul; Leave Me My Name!
Lying
Dust
Names
Tragedy Enlightens - And It Must, In That It Points The Heroic Finger At The Enemy Of Man's Freedom. The Thrust For Freedom Is The Quality In Tragedy Which Exalts. The Revolutionary Questioning Of The Stable Environment Is What Terrifies.
Men
Enemy
Tragedy
The Two Greatest Plays Ever Written Were Hamlet And Oedipus Rex, And They're Both About Father-son Relationships.
Father
Son
Oedipus
A Playwright Lives In An Occupied Country. And If You Can't Live That Way You Don't Stay.
Country
Way
Playwright
Just Remember, Kid, You Can Quicker Get Back A Million Dollars That Was Stole Than A Word That You Gave Away.
Kids
Dollars
Remember
I Am A Good Woman. I Know It.
Good Woman
Knows
No One Wants The Truth If It Is Inconvenient.
Honesty
Want
Ifs
We Are What We Always Were In Salem, But Now The Little Crazy Children Are Jangling The Keys Of The Kingdom, And Common Vengeance Writes The Law!
Children
Crazy
Writing
The Writer Must Be In It; He Can't Be To One Side Of It, Ever. He Has To Be Endangered By It. His Own Attitudes Have To Be Tested In It. The Best Work That Anybody Ever Writes Is The Work That Is On The Verge Of Embarrassing Himself, Always.
Fun
Attitude
Writing
The Job Is To Ask Questions - It Always Was - And To Ask Them As Inexorably As I Can. And To Face The Absence Of Precise Answers With A Certain Humility.
Jobs
Humility
Questions And Answers
Chris: I Don't Know Why It Is, But Every Time I Reach Out For Something I Want, I Have To Pull Back Because Other People Will Suffer.
People
Suffering
Want
Few Occasions Are As Joyous To Small Children As Funerals, Almost Better Than The Big Wedding Blowouts That Take Place At Night When It's Hard To Stay Awake. A Small Boy Will Never Be Harshly Criticized At A Funeral; He Is More Treasured As Death Comes Close And All His Wickedness Vanishes Before The Inescapable Fact That Thank God, He Is Healthy.
Children
Boys
Night
The Arts Can Do More To Sustain The Peace Than All The Wars, The Armaments, And The Threats And Warnings Of Politicians.
Art
War
Politician
Sometimes...it's Better For A Man Just To Walk Away. But If You Can't Walk Away? I Guess That's When It's Tough.
Men
Tough
Sometimes
Down Deep In His Heart God Is A Comedian Who Loves To Make Us Laugh.
Laughter
Heart
Laughing
He Have His Goodness Now. God Forbid I Take It From Him!
Crucible
Goodness
Every Time I Am Reading Actors I Can Pretty Well Tell Which Ones Have Studied With Meisner. It Is Because They Are Honest And Simple And Don't Lay On Complications That Aren't Necessary.
Reading
Simple
Actors
The Crucible Became By Far My Most Frequently Produced Play, Both Abroad And At Home. Its Meaning Is Somewhat Different In Different Places And Moments. I Can Almost Tell What The Political Situation In A Country Is When The Play Is Suddenly A Hit There It Is Either A Warning Of Tyranny On The Way Or A Reminder Of Tyranny Just Past.
Country
Home
Past
I Love Her Too, But Our Neuroses Just Don't Match.
Love
Neurosis
There Is A Problem On The So-called Commercial Stage In New York. The Price Of A Ticket Is Exorbitant, And There Are No Longer Original Productions Possible, Apparently, On The Commercial Stage. They Are All Plays That Were Taken From Either England Or Smaller Theaters, Off-broadway Theaters, And So On. The One Justification There Used To Be For The Commercial Theater Was That It Originated Everything We Had, And Now It Originates Nothing. But The Powers That Be Seem Perfectly Content To Have It That Way. They Don't Risk Anything Anymore, And They Simply Pick Off The Cream.
New York
Taken
Play
The Concentration Camp Is The Final Expression Of Human Separateness And Its Ultimate Consequence. It Is Organized Abandonment.
Expression
Finals
Abandonment
I'm Sure There Are Writers Who Are Great Businessmen, But I Never Met Any.
Great Business
Mets
Businessman
Success, Instead Of Giving Freedom Ofchoice, Becomes A Way Of Life.
Giving
Way
They Tried To Escape Technology, To Stay Away From That And Still Have Relationships With Their Fellow Humans. Very Difficult.
Technology
Difficult
Humans
You Cant Get Very Far In This World Without Your Dossier Being There First.
World
Firsts
Being There
It Was Not Really Possible To Understand Oneself, Let Alone Another Human Being.
Self
Humans
Oneself
I Speak My Own Sins; I Cannot Judge Another. I Have No Tongue For It.
Hysteria
Judging
Crucible
A Friend Of Mine Once Said That There Were Only Two Truly National Events In The History Of The United States. One Was The Civil War And The Other One Was The Depression.
War
Two
United States
A Playwright... Is... The Litmus Paper Of The Arts. He's Got To Be, Because If He Isn't Working On The Same Wave Length As The Audience, No One Would Know What In Hell He Was Talking About.
Art
Writing
Talking
I Think Now That The Great Thing Is Not So Much The Formulation Of An Answer For Myself, For The Theatre, Or The Play - But Rather The Most Accurate Possible Statement Of The Problem.
Thinking
Play
Theatre
Rise Early. Write. Disappoint Your Sons. Read The Newspaper. Go To Bed Early. Success.
Writing
Son
Bed
The Greeks Used To Use The Same Stories, The Same Mythology, Time After Time, Different Authors. There Was No Premium Placed Upon An Original Story, And Indeed, Shakespeare Likewise. A Lot Of People Wrote Plays About Great Kings. They Didn't Expect A Brand-new Story. It Was What That New Author Made Of The Old Story. It Is Probably The Same Now. We Disguise It By Inventing What Seem To Be New Stories, But They're Basically The Same Story Anyway.
Kings
Play
People
The Shadow Of A Cornstalk On The Ground Is Lovely, But It Is No Denial Of Its Loveliness To See As One Looks On It That It Is Telling The Time Of Day, The Position Of The Earth And The Sun, The Size Of Our Planet And Its Shape, And Perhaps Even The Length Of Its Life And Ours Among The Stars.
Stars
Lovely
Shadow
Whoever Is Writing In The United States Is Using The American Dream As An Ironical Pole Of His Story. People Elsewhere Tend To Accept, To A Far Greater Degree Anyway, That The Conditions Of Life Are Hostile To Mans Pretensions.
Dream
Writing
People
A Doctor Could Make A Million Dollars If He Could Figure Out A Way To Bring A Boy Into The World Without A Trigger Finger.
Boys
Doctors
Dollars
That Is A Very Good Question. I Don't Know The Answer. But Can You Tell Me The Name Of A Classical Greek Shoemaker?
Names
Greek
Good Questions
A Play Is Made By Sensing How The Forces In Life Simulate Ignorance-you Set Free The Concealed Irony, The Deadly Joke.
Writing
Ignorance
Play
In America, Any Man Who Is Not A Reactionary In His Views Is Open To The Charge Of Alliance With The Red Hell.
War
Men
Views
Whether For Good Or Evil, It Is Sadly Inevitable That All Political Leadership Requires The Artifices Of Theatrical Illusion. In The Politics Of A Democracy, The Shortest Distance Between Two Points Is Often A Crooked Line.
Distance
Two
Evil
There Is Unquestionably A Contradiction Between An Efficient Technological Machine And The Flowering Of Human Nature, Of The Human Personality.
Technology
Personality
Machines
Oh,elizabeth, Your Justice Would Freeze Beer.
Beer
Justice
Crucible
Pop, I'm Nothing! I'm Nothing, Pop. Can't You Understand That? There's No Spite In It Any More. I'm Just What I Am, That's All.
Pops
Spite
They Know Your Name, Address, Telephone Number, Credit Card Numbers, Who Else Is Driving The Car "for Insurance", ... Your Driver's License Number. In The State Of Massachusetts, This Is The Same Number As That Used For Social Security, Unless You Object To Such Use. In That Case, You Are Assigned A Number And You Reside Forever More On The List Of "weird People Who Don't Give Out Their Social Security Number In Massachusetts."
Life
Names
Numbers
The Need Of Man To Wholly Realize Himself Is The Only Fixed Star.
Stars
Men
Needs
A Good Newspaper, I Suppose, Is A Nation Talking To Itself.
Inspiration
Talking
Journalism
In His Play Depicting The Salem Witch Trials, The Author Illustrates Profound Psychological Bullying. The Ringleader Of Young Girls Suspected Of Unsavory Conduct, Frightens Her Friends Into Silence By Warning: Now, Look You; All Of You. We Danced. And Tituba Conjured Ruth Putnam's Dead Sisters, And That Was All. ... Let Either Of You Breathe A Word, Or The Edge Of A Word, About The Other Things, And I Will Come To You In The Black Of Some Terrible Night, And I Will Bring A Pointy Reckoning That Will Shudder You.
Girl
Bullying
Night
If I Have Any Justification For Having Lived It's Simply, I'm Nothing But Faults, Failures And So On, But I Have Tried To Make A Good Pair Of Shoes. There's Some Value In That.
Hypnosis
Shoes
Pairs
If A Person Measures His Spiritual Fulfillment In Terms Of Cosmic Visions, Surpassing Peace Of Mind, Or Ecstasy, Then He Is Not Likely To Know Much Spiritual Fulfillment. If, However, He Measures It In Terms Of Enjoying A Sunrise, Being Warmed By A Child's Smile, Or Being Able To Help Someone Have A Better Day, Then He Is Likely To Know Much Spiritual Fulfillment.
Spiritual
Children
Mind
It May Be That Even If Half Consciously, We Choose Our Personalities To Maintain A Certain Saving Balance In The Family's Little Universe.
Personality
Balance
Half
A Political Policy Is Equated With Moral Right, And Opposition To It With Diabolical Malevolence.
Political
Moral
Malevolence
Nobody Dast Blame This Man. For A Salesman, There Is No Rock Bottom To The Life. He Don't Put A Bolt To A Nut, He Don't Tell You The Law Or Give You Medicine. He's A Man Way Out There In The Blue, Riding On A Smile And A Shoeshine. And When They Start Not Smiling Back -- That's An Earthquake. And Then You Get Yourself A Couple Of Spots On Your Hat, And You're Finished. Nobody Dast Blame This Man. A Salesman Is Got To Dream, Boy. It Comes With The Territory.
Dream
Couple
Men
Why Am I Trying To Become What I Don’t Want To Be … When All I Want Is Out There, Waiting For Me The Minute I Say I Know Who I Am.
Who I Am
Waiting
Trying
Self-realization And Self-fulfilment Are The Sine Qua Non For Human Existence.
Self
Realization
Existence
What Work You Do! It's Strange Work For A Christian Girl To Hang Old Women!
Girl
Christian
Strange
Let Either Of You Breathe A Word, Or The Edge Of A Word, About The Other Things, And I Will Come To You In The Black Of Some Terrible Night And I Will Bring A Pointy Reckoning That Will Shudder You. And You Know I Can Do It; I Saw Indians Smash My Dear Parents' Heads On The Pillow Next To Mine, And I Have Seen Some Reddish Work Done At Night, And I Can Make You Wish You Had Never Seen The Sun Go Down! - Abigail
Night
Parent
Crucible
Without Alienation, There Can Be No Politics.
Politics
Alienation
Peace. It Is A Providence, And No Great Change; We Are Only What We Always Were, But Naked Now.
Crucible
Naked
Providence
I Believe In Work. If Somebody Doesn't Create Something, However Small It May Be, He Gets Sick. An Awful Lot Of People Feel That They're Treading Water -- That If They Vanished In Smoke, It Wouldn't Mean Anything At All In This World. And That's A Despairing And Destructive Feeling. It'll Kill You.
Work
Believe
Mean
Part Of Knowing Who We Are Is Knowing We Are Not Someone Else. And Jew Is Only The Name We Give To That Stranger, The Agony We Cannot Feel, The Death We Look At Like A Cold Abstraction. Each Man Has His Jew; It Is The Other.
Men
Knowing
Agony
Amos Oz Is One Of The Finest Novelists Of This Entire Period. My Michael Is A Beautiful Work Of Great Depth And In Some Indescribable Way Lingers In The Mind As A Lyric Song To His Country's People As Much As A Moving Love Story.
Beautiful
Country
Song
I Know That My Works Are A Credit To This Nation And I Dare Say They Will Endure Longer Than The Mccarran Act.
Credit
Dare
Endure
Witch-hunts Are Always Spooked By Women's Horrifying Sexuality Awakened By The Superstud Devil.
Devil
Witch
Sexuality
Life, Woman, Life Is God's Most Precious Gift; No Principle, However Glorious, May Justify The Taking Of It.
Crucible
Principles
May
The Only Thing You Got In This World Is What You Can Sell. And The Funny Thing Is That You're A Salesman, And You Don't Know That.
Funny Things
World
Salesman
A Suicide Kills Two People, That's What It's For!
Death
Suicide
Two
I’m A Writer, And Everything I Write Is Both A Confession And A Struggle To Understand Things About Myself And This World In Which I Live. This Is What Everyone’s Work Should Be-whether You Dance Or Paint Or Sing. It Is A Confession, A Baring Of Your Soul, Your Faults, Those Things You Simply Cannot Or Will Not Understand Or Accept. You Stumble Forward, Confused, And You Share. If You’re Lucky, You Learn Something.
Confused
Struggle
Writing
You Specialize In Something Until One Day It Is Specializing In You.
One Day
Specialization
. . Usually, The Biggest Problems Of Adapting Plays Into Screenplays Is That They Stick Too Close To The Play, And I Think Film Is A Completely Different Medium. I Think A Novel Is Much Closer To A Film.
Thinking
Play
Different
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