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

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

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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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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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Gee, what a terrific party. Later on we'll get some fluid and embalm each other.
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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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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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Once you've opened yourself up, it's best to go all the way.
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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 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 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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I never write a play with an eye to film.
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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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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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Sports is the only entertainment where, no matter how many times you go back, you never know the ending.
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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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The first book was my first attempt at writing full-length prose.
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If no one ever took risks, Michaelangelo would have painted the Sistine floor.
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Standing on a ledge again. Everyone laughs at dancing monkey with the typewriter. Not for long, though.
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