Norbert Leo Butz Quotes

I want to write a play. I'd like to do an original musical. I should probably put together a poetry collection.

I did plays in college, and I have half of a play. But I'm kind of stuck. I keep revisiting it so maybe it will move somewhere. There's something about plays where you can feel that sense of artifice at any moment.

It's wonderful to be able to sit down and write a play.

For me, a play is a form of writing which isn't complete until it is interpreted by actors. But it's still a form of writing. And so most of my time is spent thinking about how to write a sentence.

Now I can't wait to write my next play.

I hate the actor and audience business. An author should be in among the crowd, kicking their shins or cheering them on to some mischief or merriment.

For me, I just want to continue telling stories - whether it's musically or theatrically, this is what I love to do. So, I want to create more.

I love writing plays because they are living, fluid things that are energised by the producer, designers, musicians, actors and audience.

The heart of the theater is the play itself, how it dramatizes life to make it meaningful entertainment. To achieve depth and universality, the playwright must subject himself to intense critique, to know human character and behavior, and finally to construct art from the most mundane of human experience.

I write plays instinctively. I don't like writing movie scripts.

I would not have so many scripts being driven by demographics. The play's the thing - not the 18-35 year old male age group.

As a playwright, you are a torturer of actors and of the audience as well. You inflict things on people.

When theatre works, it's like nothing else, and when it doesn't, which is often, it's excruciating. It's perhaps not so excruciating when a novel goes wrong, but there is a kind of magic that can and should happen.

I write for film or, in this case, television when I haven't got a play cooking.

My family believes in a good script and ultimately everything that is attached to it. I am more interested in a hit film than a good film.

It's such a gift when you know who you're writing for and you know that that actor is capable of so much that you can relax a bit.

I always have something big enough to say as a playwright. It's storytelling.

For me, writing is a part of directing. It's the first stage of directing.

Writing plays, I've always felt a little like I'm guessing - less sure of what's good and what's not good. I think that's because it's not a complete work of art.

I spent a lot of time doing really unimportant work as an actor. It was important when I started writing that I obviously make it entertaining, or no one is going to go see it - but to really make you think, that is my goal.

Fortunately, our audiences are used to a kind of boredom in the theatre, and if the writer is skillful, he will flatter them into thinking: 'Why, that's us up there, and aren't we - for all our little foibles - pretty nice guys and gals?'

I love making stuff. There's a joy in having the first molecule of an idea, then testing it in front of audiences at secret shows that people only know about the day before. I videotape those, study them, enjoy being in the character and figuring out the movie.

The way I like to work is to attach personal experiences to what I'm doing, so it helps tremendously if I can write my own play under what the writer has written.

While many of my musicals deal with big themes and ideas, I don't intentionally go looking to write shows like that. A story will interest me, and then somewhere along the way, I discover that hidden inside are these epic themes.

I think if you're writing a play, it should be its own end game; you'll never get to do a good one unless you know it's not a blueprint for a film; you're not going to get the action right and the story right.