264 Quotes by Edward Albee

Good writers define reality; bad ones merely restate it.

I have been both overpraised and underpraised. I assume by the time I finish writing -- and I plan to go on writing until I'm 90 or gaga -- it will all equal itself out.

Influence is a matter of selection - both acceptance and rejection.

What I mean by an educated taste is someone who has the same tastes that I have.

Every writer's got to pay some attention, I suppose, to what his critics say because theirs is a reflection of what the audience feels about his work.

I do not invent characters. There they are. That's who they are. That's their nature. They talk and they behave the way they want to behave. I don't have a character behaving one way, then a point comes in the play where the person has to either stay or leave. If I had it plotted that the person leaves, then the person leaves. If that's what the person wants to do. I let the person do what the person wants or has to do at the time of the event.

Art has an obligation to offend

Creativity is magic. Don't examine it too closely.

I think that's foolishness on the part of the playwright to write about himself. People don't know anything about themselves.