David Rabe Quotes

#1. My writing was liberated once I abandoned acting.

David Rabe

#2. Often my characters don't know what the issues of the play are. They think they're doing one thing, but something else is actually orchestrating their lives.

David Rabe

#3. I get a sentence, an idea, an image, and I start. I don't know anything beyond it. I follow it.

David Rabe

#4. There's no demand for a body of work, though writers will be criticized for not having produced one.

David Rabe

#5. Eddie: You don't have any feelings at all.
Phil: I don't have your feelings, Eddie; that's all. I have my own, they get me by.

David Rabe

#6. Murderers don't even know that murder happens.

David Rabe

#7. I wrestled with my Catholicism for a long time. It took a long time to escape. It began with a sense that it was repressive, stern, judgmental. It was passionate, but it was terrifying. There were individual priests and nuns who were helpful, but the religion was cold.

David Rabe

#8. I never found a professional environment that made the production of plays efficient. Teamwork is demanded, but there are very few teams.

David Rabe

#9. Sometimes it's learning how the play wants to function rather than imposing something on it. For me, that's the thrill in directing.

David Rabe

#10. Choosing to write a play is some kind of surrender. I don't make an outline. I sit and work, and suddenly the door opens, and out it comes.

David Rabe