Richard Greenberg
Richard Greenberg
Richard Greenbergis an American playwright and television writer known for his subversively humorous depictions of middle-class American life. He has had more than 25 plays premiere on and off-broadway in New York City and eight at the South Coast Repertory Theatre, including The Violet Hour, Everett Beekin, and Hurrah at Last...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth22 February 1958
CountryUnited States of America
life sort
You do think, if you have your druthers, 'I want to sort of be, not anonymous, but unknown'. But you don't have your druthers in life, do you?
conveying entire life onstage sort time trying
I'm sort of anti-Aristotelian. I want to get an entire life onstage while conveying a sense of how time feels, how unstoppable it is, and how we don't really know what's going on because as we're trying to weave, it's weaving us.
believe closer possible
When you're writing plays, it's possible to believe you don't have any real world skill. When you're adapting, it is really all about the mechanics, so you feel closer to, I don't know, an accountant or someone who has a body of information. It's not all about temperament.
creep hard subtle tried understood
My mother wanted me to be a writer. But she was a child of the Depression and never understood that she wasn't poor. So, you know, the idea of not having a job, it would creep through. But she tried very hard to be subtle about it.
aura catch wanting
I think I can be an intimidating energy in the room. I think I come in with an aura of wanting results because as the playwright, I know how it goes, and there's the thought, 'Why can't they catch up?'
expected people time
I think I'm a writer, and it's my job. People in other professions are expected to do their jobs all the time. Why shouldn't I?
stopped
I thought if I stopped writing, ... the world would explode.
coast revise time usual
My usual route is, I do a play at South Coast Rep, then there's time between and I revise it, and then I take it to New York.
months time
It's weird, because I don't feel prolific. I don't write anything for months at a time.
bank people playwright steadily
I want to be a playwright the way people are bank tellers. I want to keep doing it and have it go steadily and smoothly.
commission era hundred scripts
I started in the era when Hollywood reveled in being the most cost-inefficient industry on the planet. They used to commission a hundred scripts for every one they made.
driven surface
Everything on and under the surface is driven by the tides,
becomes hurdle informed jump opinions precarious seemingly seems technique understand
It seems that the hurdle you have to jump over is everyone's informed opinion. When you're a young playwright, you're probably too precarious in your own technique to understand that when these seemingly informed opinions are contradicting each other, it becomes this paralyzing monolith.
alienation extension people
People talk about alienation in the city. Diners are a place where you feel comfortable, an extension of your house.