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I don't want to restrict the life of a play to a particular production. The original actors might leave after the first six months, and I want the play to last 30 or 40 years. You write for the character, not the actor on the stage.

Neil Simon

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Neil Simon
Age: 91 †
Born: 1927
Born: July 4
Died: 2018
Died: August 26
Entrepreneur
Film Producer
Librettist
Lyricist
Playwright
Screenwriter
New York City
New York
Marvin Neil Simon
Play
Stage
Productions
First
Lasts
Originals
Writing
Last
Original
Years
Actors
Six
Life
Write
Actor
Character
Months
Might
Leave
Restrict
Firsts
Particular
Production

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Sports is the only entertainment where, no matter how many times you go back, you never know the ending.
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If you can go through life without experiencing pain you probably haven't been born yet.
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I don't use computers... I'm someone who needs to see the page right away in my hand.
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I never write a play with an eye to film.
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I feel like writing about a time when I was probably, and think all of us are, the happiest before the obligations start in.
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Evan Handler's new book is simply wonderful. He pulls you inside his life, and you come out his very close friend.
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I much prefer writing an original movie with the screen in mind to transferring a play to the screen.
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A lot of your personality is formed before you're 12, obviously, but only a few of my plays use characters from my childhood. The more mature plays are affected only by my adult experiences.
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If no one ever took risks, Michaelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor.
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All humor is based on hostility - that's why World War Two was funny.
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Gee, what a terrific party. Later on we'll get some fluid and embalm each other.
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I don't like dating or just living with a woman. I like to create a relationship, a marriage. And almost all of my marriages have involved children, so I'm really a family man as well.
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You get attached to the way you write, and I'm attached to notebooks. That's where I really write the plays. Just two or three pages at a time, then I transfer to the typewriter and rewrite while I type.
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Talent is the gift plus the passion - a desire to succeed so intense that no force on earth can stop it.
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It looks different when you're sober I thought I had twice as much furniture.
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I was constantly being dragged out of movies for laughing too loud.
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I understand. You work very hard two days a week and you need a five-day weekend. That's normal.
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I love living. I have some problems with my life, but living is the best thing they've come up with so far.
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I go to see plays all the time, and whenever I see Chekhov, I'm amazed at how this Russian play strikes home to me living 100 years later in New York City. I'm drawn to him because of his way with characters and their relationships with each other.
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Writers feel like a middleman, standing with pen in hand over the page. A force greater than me stands above telling me what to write. That may sound romantic, but that's how it feels.
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