An unpopular subject...

"I don't get up every morning and say, 'Now, can I find some risks I have to take?' No. But, I don't think I've compromised either. I don't think I've ever said to myself, 'Gee, this is going to be an unpopular subject. Maybe I'd better not write it.' Or, 'Gee, maybe I'd better simplify here.' No. Nor do I do the reverse - try to make myself look better by making them more complicated. No. You write what's in your head.

"I don't rewrite. Well, not much. I think I probably do all the rewriting that I'm going to do before I'm aware that I'm writing the play because obviously, the creativity resists - resides - in the unconscious, right? Probably resists the unconscious, too - resides in the unconscious. My plays, I think, are pretty much determined before I become aware of them. I think they formulated there, and then they move into the conscious mind, and then onto the page. By the time I'm willing to commit a play to paper, I pretty much know - or can trust - the characters to write the play for me. So, I don't impose. I let them have their heads and say and do what they want, and it turns out to be a play.

"There is no such thing as 'the writer's life.' There is merely that time when you're sitting upstairs, or wherever you sit, and you're writing something. That's very special, and probably very individual for each person, too."

Edward Albee - Academy of Achievement interview (2005)