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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
Years
Actors
Six
Life
Write
Actor
Character
Months
Might
Leave
Restrict
Firsts
Particular
Production
Play
Stage
Productions
First
Lasts
Originals
Writing
Last
Original

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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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I don't use computers... I'm someone who needs to see the page right away in my hand.
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[When you write a play] you walk into a forest without a knife, without a compass. But . . . if you have a sense of geography, you find that you're clearing a path and getting to the right place.
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The first book was my first attempt at writing full-length prose.
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It's always painful when you're writing memoirs because you've got to go through the dark places, but it gives you a chance to find out the person you really are, not the person you thought you were.
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Rewriting is when writing really gets to be fun. . . . In baseball you only get three swings and you're out. In rewriting, you get almost as many swings as you want and you know, sooner or later, you'll hit the ball.
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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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He's too nervous to kill himself. He wears his seat belt in a drive-in movie.
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I never write a play with an eye to film.
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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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Once you've opened yourself up, it's best to go all the way.
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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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All humor is based on hostility - that's why World War Two was funny.
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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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If you can go through life without experiencing pain you probably haven't been born yet.
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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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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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Gee, what a terrific party. Later on we'll get some fluid and embalm each other.
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There's no such thing as a sure thing. That's why they call it gambling.
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