Edward Albee

American playwright (1928-2016)

Edward Franklin Albee III was an American playwright known for works such as The Zoo Story (1958), The Sandbox (1959), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), A Delicate Balance (1966), and Three Tall Women (1994).

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About the Edward Albee

Edward Franklin Albee IIIwas an American playwright known for works such as The Zoo Story (1958), The Sandbox (1959), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962), A Delicate Balance (1966), and Three Tall Women (1994). Some critics have argued that some of his work constitutes an American variant of what Martin Esslin identified as and named the Theater of the Absurd. Three of his plays won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and two of his other works won the Tony Award for Best Play.

His works are often considered frank examinations of the modern condition. His early works reflect a mastery and Americanization of the Theatre of the Absurd that found its peak in works by European playwrights such as Samuel Beckett, Eugene Ionesco, and Jean Genet.

His middle period comprised plays that explored the psychology of maturing, marriage and sexual relationships. Younger American playwrights, such as Paula Vogel, credit Albee’s mix of theatricality and biting dialogue with helping to reinvent postwar American theatre in the early 1960s. Later in life, Albee continued to experiment in works such as The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (2002).

16 Quotes by Edward Albee

  1. 1.

    The thing that makes a creative person is to be creative and that is all there is to it.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  2. 2.

    American critics are like American universities. They both have dull and half-dead faculties.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  3. 3.

    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 Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  4. 4.

    Sometimes it’s necessary to go a long distance out of the way in order to come back a short distance correctly.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  5. 5.

    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.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  6. 6.

    What people really want in the theater is fantasy involvement and not reality involvement.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  7. 7.

    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 Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  8. 8.

    Sometimes a person has to go a very long distance out of his way to come back a short distance correctly.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  9. 9.

    If Attila the Hun were alive today, he’d be a drama critic.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  10. 10.

    Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it. A good writer turns fact into truth; a bad writer will, more often than not, accomplish the opposite.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  11. 11.

    The difference between critics and audiences is that one is a group of humans and one is not.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  12. 12.

    I swear, if you existed I’d divorce you.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  13. 13.

    I’m not suggesting that the play is without fault; all of my plays are imperfect, I’m rather happy to say-it leaves me something to do.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  14. 14.

    I have a fine sense of the ridiculous, but no sense of humor.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  15. 15.

    You gotta have swine to show you where the truffles are.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)

  16. 16.

    A play is fiction – and fiction is fact distilled into truth.

    Edward Albee

    American playwright (1928-2016)