Top 45 Theresa Rebeck Quotes

I was born and raised in the Midwest, where people were taught that decency and integrity and community were all important values. We were democrats with a little ‘d.’

I have huge admiration for Jesus Christ and for his incredible compassion for all people.

I think it goes without saying that young would-be playwrights in developmental workshops should be so lucky as to write plays as good as ‘Waiting for Godot,’ ‘Uncle Vanya’ or ‘King Lear,’ none of which would have existed without a decent plot.

There are so many people from many different classes and ways of life who converge in one space to make a musical.

I find a lot of input from other people very stressful.

I’m actually interested in poor behavior. I’m interested in what drives people to poor behavior.

In America, the average playwright makes less than a receptionist in a non-profit theatre. We don’t have decent health insurance – or any health insurance at all.

People kept saying, ‘You’ve made it!’ and I was like, ‘What have I been doing all this time?’ I’ve always felt successful.

Nothing sounds as crazy as telling people you’re not crazy.

Because I’m an American woman, and I write straight plays, it’s always been sort of assumed I would never be done on Broadway. But that was never the goal.

I often find it maddening to live in America, in a way that is both amusing and horrifying to me. America clings to versions of itself that are absolutely hypocritical. I can’t shake my outrage at it, so I write about it.

Spielberg read the ‘Understudy’ and decided that was the voice he wanted to write ‘Smash.’ He wanted a story that had humanity and humor and high-stakes dreams.

Heath Ledger’s recent death, like that of River Phoenix, was handled with great care by the press. Anna Nicole Smith’s not so much.

Everyone pays lip service to this whole idea of doing more new plays, and nobody ever does it.

When I was a staff writer on ‘NYPD Blue,’ it was truly my job to hear David Milch’s voice for that show and to deliver episodes that embodied that voice.

I see how the Midwest distrusts the East Coast. The Midwest sees itself as morally superior. The Coast sees itself as intellectually superior. And the two are actually the same thing.

You have to respect who the character is. It has its own internal truth, and you can’t betray that. And if you don’t betray that, it will not betray you.

I like to write. Prolific is part of who I am.

I think, with most writers, their neurosis is finishing things. I have a different neurosis. I’m terribly anxious when it’s not finished. Then I become really difficult to live with.

We have this powerful ideological basis to the country that I don’t think any other country in the world quite can brag about. It’s a very complicated nation, and it’s very fertile.

A lot of times, I think people feel that new plays are suspect, and actually, I don’t know where that came from. I completely disagree with it!

I sincerely believe that for the New York theatre to remain relevant, all our major producing institutions should be presenting new American plays.

I do believe that there are monsters out there – and that they are monsters.

I’m an impatient person.

I go to museums. I buy art, even. You should see my house; we don’t have any wall space left.

The movies are all about visual, and television is all about character and dialogue.

Our distorted media culture sees men as subjects and women as objects; in films, Woody Allen gets older and older and still dates 20-year-old babes; movies about women are called ‘chick flicks,’ and men make fun of them.

I’m not afraid of just cranking it out and seeing what comes out of my subconscious. Because I don’t always know what I’m feeling. I do a lot of rewriting later. But that first blast feels like a spigot – like it’s coming from somewhere else.

I make my life with New York stage actors, and I love them. They’re the best actors on planet earth.

I think we have a cultural difficulty with looking at our problems.

There are times when I wonder how I ever thought that I could dramatize the death of a national discussion as a family comedy.

I’m not ashamed of being American; I’m very proud.

I have a dog whose name is Banquo.

I am curious about a lot of things. I’m perplexed and engaged.

It’s not my responsibility to write plays about the way the world should be.

So in case there was any doubt, I am here to report that having a play on Broadway does not suck.

When people tell me I’m a prolific writer, it’s a nice thing to say. But I think to myself, ‘Yeah, but I don’t do anything else.’

It’s so funny, I’m always stealing from Moliere, and nobody ever notices. I steal from him willy-nilly.

Why is being a female having an agenda any more than being a misogynist – which David Mamet most certainly is?

The economics of theater are painful. I still think that the theater community should be looking much more rigorously at how to let the playwright keep the money they make.

Some people think big audiences are crass and that, say, a comedy that appeals to a wide audience is pandering. Other people would argue that you could say that about Moliere.

I seem to be constantly confronted by theater professionals who are more or less annoyed by the prospect of structure.

I have always worked consistently, even in small ways and even in smaller theaters where I’ll do One Acts or something.

I write a lot because, if I don’t, I start to panic, and I calm down when I write.

I had such a good experience doing ‘The Understudy’ with the Roundabout, and people were really enthusiastic about the work.