Sarah Ruhl
Sarah Ruhl
Sarah Ruhlis an American playwright. She is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for a distinguished American playwright in mid-career...
children hate kids
It's a privilege to have kids and not live your life in solitude. But we live in a child-hating culture.
stars children believe
I think a person has to believe in something, or search out some kind of faith; otherwise life is empty, nothing. How can you live not knowing why the cranes fly, why children are born, why there are stars in the sky... Either you know why you live, or it's all small, unnecessary bits.
mother children thinking
It was important to me that people know that you can make plays and raise children at the same time - for other mothers, for other parents, for other women considering having children and who want to be working and thinking and contemplating and making things while they're raising children.
believed life might models paula playwright poetry role
Role models are huge, ... I started out writing poetry and might never have believed I could have a life as a playwright if Paula Vogel hadn't plucked me out and said 'you can do this for life.'
people roles split
There's kind of a split between the roles people play and who they are in real life,
arena blurred feels historical holy line love midst moment political politics premiere religion religious thrilled war
Little is more American than the nexus of religious rhetoric, politics, love and theatricality. At an historical moment when it feels at times as if we are in the midst of a contemporary holy war - where the line between religion and politics has become increasingly blurred - I'm thrilled to premiere this play at Arena Stage, in our nation's political center.
playwright woman women
Any woman who is a playwright is already a feminist.
age age-and-aging almost aura forward hot irony male pushing surrounds tremendous women work writer
I will also say that there's a kind of aura around young male writers, say age 26, the hot male writer thing that never surrounds women playwrights. And there's a tremendous irony there, because the playwrights most interesting to read and see now, the ones who are really pushing the work forward aesthetically, are almost all women.
defense aesthetic
Being dead is the most airtight defense of one's own aesthetic.
interesting people would-be
I always thought there would be more interesting people at my wedding.
writing thinking parent
I found that life intruding on writing was, in fact, life. And that, tempting as it may be for a writer who is a parent, one must not think of life as an intrusion. At the end of the day, writing has very little to do with writing, and much to do with life. And life, by definition, is not an intrusion.
thinking insane interviews
I don't read a word that's written about me. I don't read my own interviews. I don't read reviews. I think it would drive me insane.
fall thinking expectations
I think you have to have your own expectations of yourself and your own sense of purpose and your own intrinsic pleasure in the task. If you don't, you will drive yourself off a cliff because your fortunes will rise and fall, and if you identify too closely with that, you really will go insane.
age invisible certain
I see, in women friends, a really dangerous phenomenon where it seems they reach a certain age and become invisible.