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The first book was my first attempt at writing full-length prose.

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
Book
First
Writing
Prose
Length
Attempt
Full
Firsts

More quotes by Neil Simon

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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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Gee, what a terrific party. Later on we'll get some fluid and embalm each other.
Neil Simon
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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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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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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
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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.
Neil Simon
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I don't use computers... I'm someone who needs to see the page right away in my hand.
Neil Simon
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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.
Neil Simon
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He's too nervous to kill himself. He wears his seat belt in a drive-in movie.
Neil Simon
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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.
Neil Simon
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I much prefer writing an original movie with the screen in mind to transferring a play to the screen.
Neil Simon
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It looks different when you're sober I thought I had twice as much furniture.
Neil Simon
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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.
Neil Simon
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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.
Neil Simon
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Once you've opened yourself up, it's best to go all the way.
Neil Simon
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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.
Neil Simon
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If you can go through life without experiencing pain you probably haven't been born yet.
Neil Simon
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Sudden money is going from zero to two hundred dollars a week. The rest doesn't count.
Neil Simon
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All humor is based on hostility - that's why World War Two was funny.
Neil Simon
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I was constantly being dragged out of movies for laughing too loud.
Neil Simon