Adam Rapp Quotes & Sayings

“I think there is a complicated side effect to overcoming evil in that we are forever changed by it. I think after we ingest some of the cruelty of the world, it takes years off of our lives, but it also gives us wisdom and a little grace, hopefully a sense of compassion.”

“One of the things that concerns me is the lack of adult supervision, and more specifically, caring adult supervision, at various reform schools and juvenile detention centers. I think there's a kind of Darwinian brutality that can run rampant when kids are given power, and if you're on the wrong end of the pecking order, things can be very scary.”

“I was born in Chicago, then I spent most of my youth in Joliet, Illinois which is about thirty minutes south, and I went to a military academy for high school in Wisconsin. Then I went to college, on a basketball scholarship to a small school in Iowa, so I'm like Mr. Midwest.”

“I would hope that the staffs at juvenile detention centers and reform schools are carefully chosen so that there is a community of support and hope.”

“My work is always more emotional than I am. My characters say things to each other that I get accused of not being able to say to my girlfriend.”

“Some of the greatest works of theater, from Chekov's work to modern playwrights', consist of just a few people in a room with no one leaving.”

“When I work in the theater, you know you'll get this almost devotional, religious experience where you're breaking bread with everyone every day.”

“I hate the idea of sheltering kids from challenging books. It's just another form of conservative fear that promotes ignorance more than anything else.”

“One of the tricks to writing great plays is to get people in a room together and not let them leave. You want the tension to escalate. Keeping them there is the hardest part, so you have to take away any excuse for them to leave.”

“I don't see a lot of movies that portray the East Village as well as I think they can.”