53+ John Guare Quotes On Education, Body And Absurd

John Guare was an American playwright and screenwriter. He was best known for his plays The House of Blue Leaves, Six Degrees of Separation, and Landscape of the Body. He was a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and a Tony Award winner for Best Play. Following is our collection on famous quotes by John Guare on life, education, love.

Top 10 John Guare Quotes

1. We live in a world where amnesia is the most wished-for state. When did history become a bad word?
2. And it is always Easter Sunday at the New York City Ballet. It is always coming back to life. Not even coming back to life - it lives in the constant present.
3. Show business offers more solid promises than Catholicism.
4. Feydeau's one rule of playwriting: Character A: My life is perfect as long as I don't see Character B. Knock Knock. Enter Character B.
5. However, the moral center of New York City, I believe, is the New York City Ballet.
6. The great risk is always saying, "how will I communicate what I'm trying to get across to a room full of strangers sitting in the dark watching a stage?"
7. How much of your life can you account for? My life is a collage of unaccounted for brush strokes; I am all random”.
8. Does the New York City Ballet affect other places? Yeah, it lets people know they should come to New York.
9. The life of a dancer is tragically short. What is remarkable about the New York City Ballet is that it makes us forget that. Because it keeps the ballet alive.
10. I think that every year that the New York City Ballet is alive is worthy of celebration. Because otherwise the terrible thing is just that we take it for granted.

John Guare Short Quotes

• I think of the New York City Ballet as the Yankees without George Steinbrenner.
• And what would be great numbers in a Broadway show are now on stage of the New York City Ballet.
• All the New York City Ballet does is hit beautiful home runs.
• Avoiding humiliation is the core of tragedy and comedy.
• We're all where we come from. We all have our roots.
• Oh, I never use a seat belt. I don't believe in gravity.
• The Atlantic Ocean was something then.
• I wanted to be a Bride of Christ but I guess now I'm a young divorcee.
• 1975 is as much a historical document as 1803.
• The power of the past to still dominate our thinking today.

John Guare Quotes About Life

Oh god, I'd just hate it if a certain dramaturg got a hold of a Pinter play, for example, which are all mystery and all music. That's how the life get's sucked out of plays. — John Guare

There's no such thing as a perfect play. Sometimes you have to protect the life of the play. — John Guare

I think that some of these plays are lost in this new horror called development, which is a place for dramaturgs to say "let me tell you what your play means," and the life gets sucked out of a play. — John Guare

Sometimes you have to protect the life of the play. It seems like spelling out mysterious, musical details can destroy a play by making the motivations too clear, too simplex. — John Guare

Every play is so important. It's a record of what life was like at the time you wrote that play or that book. — John Guare

John Guare Famous Quotes And Sayings

What we're dealt with hopefully is two arms, two eyes, two legs, a head, a heart. The variations, the extensions, the possibilities of the human body, what that can do — John Guare

You cannot write to resonate twenty or thirty or forty years from now. You only can write for that very day, but whatever happens is all gravy. — John Guare

I mean New York City is the financial capital of the world. It's where all the money passes through, the Dow Jones, whatever, that's where all the money goes. — John Guare

I believe that the imagination is the passport we create to take us into the real world. I believe the imagination is another phrase for what is most uniquely us. — John Guare

What I hate about kitchen-sink dramas is [this idea] that the set is real, therefore you're going to be seeing truth. You have to earn truth. Truth can't be a part of the fact that people appear to talk that way and live in that room. You're looking for the poetry in something, and I don't mean poetry in the fancy sense. Naturalism believes by just replicating a thing you give the truth, rather than earning the truth. — John Guare

People rewrite the play so much to make it palatable to the audience, to make something clear, that they just deaden it. Like it was left it in the oven too long. — John Guare

Like a dog, a playwright lives in an eternal present and a play is never closed. — John Guare

You can read ten books and finally come across one detail, and it's like, "now everything else makes sense. Now I know where I am." — John Guare

I only do business with the people I do business with. The people I do business with find out I do business with the people I don't do business with.... I can't do business with you. — John Guare

I don't think about taking a risk. I think about how far can I go. How can I make myself. What are the risks I must create. — John Guare

You can't kind of take away, you either do or you don't. If you kind of take away something you're a failure. — John Guare

I am the same artist with the same nagging questions I had in my early 20's. What's real and what isn't? How do we tell what's real in our lives? How do we see things as they are? What is my role in life? If the Signature hadn't forced the issue by devoting its season to my plays, I could at least believe I had changed. Really, they're all the same! What is SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION but THE HOUSE OF BLUE LEAVES with money? — John Guare

There's no American playwright after 1945 who wasn't profoundly affected - who didn't have their DNA changed by Tennessee Williams. — John Guare

I'm sure there are some good dramaturgs but I've never worked with one. — John Guare

People go to see beautiful paintings to see how much they cost. Wow. The practical value is that it shows you what the human spirit can do. — John Guare

James Joyce wrote the definitive work about Dublin while he was living in Switzerland. We're all where we come from. We all have our roots. — John Guare

You don't push the button that says "Now I will write something that resonates in time." You don't know. It's what happens after a play is finished. — John Guare

The imagination says listen to me. I am your darkest voice. I am your 4 a.m. voice. I am the voice that wakes you up and says this is what I'm afraid of. Do not listen to me at your peril.... The imagination is not our escape. On the contrary, the imagination is the place we are all trying to get to. — John Guare

You can't be a sort of pioneer. — John Guare

Does any art have a practical value? People love to talk about how expensive a painting is. That's the only way we can talk about paintings in this century. — John Guare

Ballet is always about the realm of possibilities, the realm of what the human body can do, what the human spirit can do. And it's about listening, it's about listening to remarkable music and how we respond to that. — John Guare

Eugene O'Neil created an American theater, and Tennessee Williams taught it how to sing. — John Guare

I'm an American playwright. Tennessee Williams got in all our DNA. — John Guare

The only riots were the people trying to get tickets. — John Guare

I think a playwright must be his own dramaturg. I believe in a theater where the director and the playwright work together to create what they need. — John Guare

I think a playwright must be his own dramaturg. — John Guare

It's amazing how a little tomorrow can make up for a whole lot of yesterday. — John Guare

Everyone talks about America, this great country. You hear, "I'm more patriotic than you are. No, I'm more patriotic!" But how few people know the history of this country and how we came into being. That's the part that just amazed me. — John Guare

Life Lessons by John Guare

1. John Guare's plays often emphasize the importance of understanding the consequences of our actions and the power of forgiveness.
2. Guare's works often explore the power of relationships, the complexity of human nature, and the importance of empathy.
3. Through his plays, Guare encourages us to be mindful of our own actions, to cultivate meaningful connections, and to strive for understanding and compassion.