Arthur Laurents

“The hardest thing in the world is to be simple.”

“The subtext is the meaning. It is what the play is about.”

“You can't write a musical without a book. And the book is the key.”

“The theatre is a place where you can say things that you can't say in real life.”

“Talent is a dreadfully cheap commodity, cheaper than table salt. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark places where it leads.”

“I don't think you can be a director without a writer's sensibility.”

“All you need is a story.”

“The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.”

“You must know what you're doing, and you must be able to do it. You've got to have the technique.”

“What you learn from a show is how to do the next show.”

“You have to have a point of view. You have to have a reason for doing what you're doing.”

“The only way to write is to write. It's a verb.”