Ayckbourn Quotes

#1. Plays by Alan Ayckbourn have been attracting larger audiences in the regional theatres than those of Shakespeare.

Alan Ayckbourn

#2. You do develop a taste as an actress: Chekhov, Ayckbourn: it's the combination of comedy and human drama. I would never want to do anything without comedy.

Katherine Parkinson

#3. I fell in love with Alan Ayckbourn the day I met him and, starting with 'The Norman Conquests,' went on to do eight plays with him. He tells you just what you want to know and has a brilliant way of solving problems.

Michael Gambon

#4. Refrain from being too judgmental. You'll often be surprised by what people have to offer.

Lisa Ling

#5. If you are flattering a woman, it pays to be a little more subtle. You don't have to bother with men, they believe any compliment automatically.

Alan Ayckbourn

#6. My eyes burn with tears, and I'm so tired. So tired of holding back everything I feel and want to say. So tired of being someone I'm not and making mistakes that I didn't have any fun making.

Penelope Douglas

#7. I see myself as part English and part American, with a dash of Irish thrown in, and a pinch of Italian from my mother's ancestry.

Allegra Huston

#8. Great heroes need great sorrows and burdens, or half their greatness goes unnoticed. It is all part of the fairy tale.

Peter S. Beagle

#9. Salad, I can't bear salad. It grows while you're eating it, you know.

Alan Ayckbourn

#10. If you move to the West Coast, I will make a gun out of this," she said, drunkenly brandishing a tiny straw before searching the rest of the cluttered table, "and these peanuts and this glass and shoot you in the dick, Will."
I winced at the visual. "Wow-" I began.
"In the dick, Will.

Christina Lauren

#11. Cats names are more for human benefit. They give one a certain degree more confidence that the animal belongs to you.

Alan Ayckbourn

#12. There are very few people on top of life, and the rest of us don't like them very much.

Alan Ayckbourn

#13. Few women care to be laughed at and men not at all, except for large sums of money.

Alan Ayckbourn

#14. A comedy is just a tragedy interrupted, I once said. Do you finish with the kiss or when she opens her eyes to tell him she loves him and sees blonde hairs on his collar?

Alan Ayckbourn

#15. Why would you do that? Why the hell would you ever think I wanted you to do that? I'm supposed to protect you."
Liv's gaze hardened again. "Right after you drag me back to the cave by my hair, right? Damn, you can be a real asshole sometimes.

Rachel Vincent

#16. As a writer one is allowed to have conversations with oneself. What is considered sane in writers is made for the rest of the human race.

Alan Ayckbourn

#17. Comfort and luxury are usually the chief requirements of life for your ego - its top priorities tend to be accumulations, achievements, and the approval of others.

Wayne Dyer

#18. We were most amused by destroying what we'd taken.

Darin Bradley

#19. He really is terribly heavy going. Like running up hill in roller skates.

Alan Ayckbourn

#20. The darker the subject, the more light you must try to shed on the matter. And vice versa.

Alan Ayckbourn

#21. I think of a plot, I think of an idea, and then I wonder, How can I get that onto the stage? ... Whatever devices you use should always be there to serve the theme. If the theme has been overtaken by the device, then something's wrong.

Alan Ayckbourn

#22. There is a school of thought that believes that sleep is for the night. You appear to be out to disprove them.

Alan Ayckbourn

#23. The things I've done in my life have required a lot of years
of work before they took off.

Steve Jobs

#24. A gentleman ... sleeps at his work. That's what work's for. Why do you think they have the SILENCE notices in the library? So as not to disturb me in my little nook behind the biography shelves.

Alan Ayckbourn