John Patrick Shanley
John Patrick Shanley
John Patrick Shanleyis an American playwright, screenwriter, and theatre and film director. His play Doubt: A Parable won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as the 2005 Tony Award for Best Play. He won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his film Moonstruck...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth3 October 1950
CountryUnited States of America
conscience dangerous destroy few ground life middle people rigor satisfies total wake
Conscience is the most dangerous thing you possess. If you wake it up, it may destroy you. To live a life of total moral rigor is not necessarily the way to go. It's the path for very few people. Most people need to come up with some kind of middle ground that satisfies their practical, moral, and philosophical esthetic needs.
business given life whenever
I've done very well in the film business. Whenever I have wanted something, the film business has given it to me. I'm very fortunate. My big problem in life has always been, 'What do I want?'
basically came eye figuring films money needed pay plays realized seventies since watch
I've been writing plays since the seventies and only came to moviemaking when I basically realized that I needed some money to pay the rent. I started to watch films with an eye to figuring out how to write them.
began though until wrote
It wasn't until I was 35 or 36, when I wrote 'Danny and the Deep Blue Sea,' that I began to get some notoriety, though I only made $5,000.
fewer plays
The modern economics of the theater is such that we write plays with fewer and fewer characters.
incredibly
'The Miracle Worker' is just such an incredibly powerful play on stage, and is so kinetic, and athletic.
names dear-god bigs
dear god, whose name i do not know. thank you for my life. i forgot... how BIG... thank you. thank you for my life.
couple reading eye
All plays stem from personal experience. I was reading psychoanalytic lit for a couple of years, obsessively, in depth, and I got involved in analyzing everyone around me. . . . Eventually, all my friends' eyes began to glaze over when I started talking this way, and I got the hint that there might be something comical in it.
writing people house
If you put someone in a room with no script to direct, they're just going to sit there. Writing scripts is the execution for a show. Then the director takes that and hires people. It's like trying to build a house without any bricks. You need a great script.
doubt
I have doubts! I have such doubts!
interesting challenges trying
Trying to lead an interesting life, a fruitful life, is a big challenge.
writing thinking people
When I write a screenplay - and I think this is true for a lot of people - you direct the movie. Thats what writing a screenplay is.
enough monogamy bulbs
Monogamy is like a 40-watt bulb. It works, but its not enough.
I'd like to thank everybody who ever punched or kissed me in my life and everybody who I ever punched or kissed.