Quotes from Sarah Ruhl

Being insulted by your child and loving them anyway is the human condition.

But don't we need to cross over? Is this not a moral imperative for art, but also for social discourse? Don't we need to imagine people different from ourselves, people whose experiences we can only imagine?

Then she said, "Your plays balance on air I mean they are air I mean they are performed in air so they are air. "If a whole city could balance on a seed then a city could balance on a play because a play is air and everything is air. "Your next play should be about a seed because a seed is smaller than an almond. Or maybe your next play should be smaller than an almond, about nothing, about air.

This is my body. I am my soul. These are my lips. I am my word. This is my skin. I am my action. These are my legs. I am my contribution. This is my smile. I am my laughter.

Narrative is an accumulation of knowledge about the future. We begin in the present and end in the present, and in the middle is an accumulation of future possibilities

We need Harry Potter.

When you snatch happiness in little bits, fits and starts, and lose it, like me, you become coarse, little by little, you become hateful.

Certain brands of guilt can be inculcated in a secular way but other brands of guilt can only be obtained with reference to the metaphysical.

Once the language was in the actors' minds, and their bodies were freed from blocking, and in relationship to real architecture, they became virtuosic. Metaphor suddenly had a more intimate relationship with reality. The actor was real, the staircase was real, the emotion was real, and the language floated on top.    

The importance of knowing nothing is underrated.

Put the bad poetry in the mouths of outlandish characters. It might make bad poetry funny instead of sad.

What I really value about being a writer is that I can go to rehearsal when I want to, and then, when I need to be at home writing or with my kids, I go home.

I see, in women friends, a really dangerous phenomenon where it seems they reach a certain age and become invisible.

Sitting down with younger women writers and saying, "This is what I do and you can do this" is hugely important.