Literary Birthday – 3 November – Terrence McNally

Terrence McNally was born 3 November 1938 and died 24 March 2020.

Five Quotes

1. Whenever you think you’re writing what other people want to hear from you, and that it’ll be commercial, you’re doomed to disaster. Writing has to be as truthful and specific as we can make it. The minute we think that we’re reaching more people and pleasing them, we get general. And audiences sense that and turn away, shun us.
2. With me, writing is 60% imagination, 30% people you know and 10% you don’t know where it comes from.
3. I like to surprise myself. I’ve always been attracted to projects where I don’t know how they’re going to turn out.
4. When I work on a book for a musical, I make sure it’s a story I really want to tell with collaborators who I want to be working with. And I take it every bit as seriously as I do my own plays.
5. I may think I have inalienable rights to be alive and happy, but I don’t – life is a blessing.

Terrence McNally was an American playwright. His works included Corpus Christi, Master Class, and Love! Valour! Compassion!. He received many awards including four Tony Awards, an Emmy Award, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Source for Image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Terrence_McNally_2020.jpg#filelinks  Al Pereira 2020 

by Amanda Patterson

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