Marsha Norman Quotes & Sayings

“Dreams are illustrations from the book your soul is writing about you.”

“If someone wants to say 'I love you' in a straight play, they say it, and then it's the other person's turn to talk. But in a song, you can sing about it for another three minutes. The musical form has that unique opportunity to express at length what joy really feels like.”

“Music expresses longing and love and joy better than any piece of dialogue you can ever write.”

“People do think that if they avoid the truth, it might change to something better before they have to hear it.”

“People listen to music with cavemen ears: Is it a bird song or the call of a lion? The audience at a musical is dancing in their hearts.”

“Think of a musical as a string of pearls. If you don't have a string, you can't put the pearls around your neck.”

“There are days when I think the National Endowment for the Arts should issue a quota system for the production of plays by women - especially when you realize women buy 70 percent of all theater tickets.”

“At the heart of the failure of most plays is the inability to carry on a thoughtful conversation about your work with yourself.”

“I feel that I speak the musical language.”

“If I had not had music in my life, I would be the neurasthenic vision of the playwright.”