Quote

[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.

Neil Simon

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Right
Path
Geography
Writing
Getting
Knife
Write
Compass
Sense
Knives
Place
Forest
Find
Forests
Without
Walk
Play
Walks
Clearing

More quotes by Neil Simon

Image
I never write a play with an eye to film.
Neil Simon
Image
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.
Neil Simon
Image
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.
Neil Simon
Image
I feel like writing about a time when I was probably, and think all of us are, the happiest before the obligations start in.
Neil Simon
Image
Sudden money is going from zero to two hundred dollars a week. The rest doesn't count.
Neil Simon
Image
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
Image
Evan Handler's new book is simply wonderful. He pulls you inside his life, and you come out his very close friend.
Neil Simon
Image
Sports is the only entertainment where, no matter how many times you go back, you never know the ending.
Neil Simon
Image
If you can go through life without experiencing pain you probably haven't been born yet.
Neil Simon
Image
He's too nervous to kill himself. He wears his seat belt in a drive-in movie.
Neil Simon
Image
It looks different when you're sober I thought I had twice as much furniture.
Neil Simon
Image
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.
Neil Simon
Image
The first book was my first attempt at writing full-length prose.
Neil Simon
Image
I understand. You work very hard two days a week and you need a five-day weekend. That's normal.
Neil Simon
Image
I much prefer writing an original movie with the screen in mind to transferring a play to the screen.
Neil Simon
Image
If no one ever took risks, Michaelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor.
Neil Simon
Image
I was constantly being dragged out of movies for laughing too loud.
Neil Simon
Image
I love living. I have some problems with my life, but living is the best thing they've come up with so far.
Neil Simon
Image
Once you've opened yourself up, it's best to go all the way.
Neil Simon
Image
Standing on a ledge again. Everyone laughs at dancing monkey with the typewriter. Not for long, though.
Neil Simon