I’ve had wonderful collaborators. They’re very different, just as actors are. Working on a show with Nathan Lane is different from working on a show with Chita Rivera. It keeps you on your toes because it’s different every time.

In those days, you had to like one or the other. You couldn’t like Sutherland AND Callas.

MARIA. So. How is everyone? Can you hear me? I don’t believe in microphones. Singing is first of all about projection. So is speech. People are forgetting how to listen. They want everything blasted at them. Listening takes concentration. If you can’t hear me, it’s your fault. You’re not concentrating.

I like to surprise myself. I’ve always been attracted to projects where I don’t know how they’re going to turn out.

I’m of the school ‘Write what you know.’ You can educate yourself, but the best writing usually comes from the heart.

There are so many rules about play writing. I’d have a nervous breakdown if I followed them.

Write plays that matter. Raise the stakes. Shout, yell, holler, but make yourself heard. It’s time for playwrights to reclaim the theatre. We do that by speaking from the heart about the things that matter most to us. If a play isn’t worth dying for, maybe it isn’t worth writing.

I may think I have inalienable rights to be alive and happy, but I don’t – life is a blessing.

I don't think I've ever written anything even remotely naturalistic. The closest probably would be seen as 'Frankie and Johnny,' and that's only 'cause they eat a sandwich and make an omelet in act two. But it's a romantic fairy tale, and I'm very aware of that. I don't think it helps the actors in my plays to lose themselves in the reality of talking to another person. A good McNally actor always knows he's in a play with an audience.

Write plays that matter. Raise the stakes. Shout, yell, holler, but make yourself heard. It's time for playwrights to reclaim the theatre. We do that by speaking from the heart about the things that matter most to us. If a play isn't worth dying for, maybe it isn't worth writing.