"Interviewing Eugene O'Neill is like extracting testimony from a reluctant witness. In fact, to use the word "interview" in connection with him is to employ almost a misnomer. Certainly it is an inapplicable designation. An interview presupposes a colloquy. A flow of words between two persons. Nothing more erroneous could be circulated about [him]. ... Silence. Silence. More questions, probings, attempts to secure opinions, statements, anything but monosyllables. Futility! Suddenly, I am overcome with a sense of the ridiculous. Here are two people whose very careers oppose this sort of conduct. A playwright who deals in words. A writer who juggles them daily. Sitting across from each other in silence, apparently overcome with shyness."
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Nobel laureates in LiteraturePeople from New York CityAgnostics from the United StatesPlaywrights from the United StatesTony Award winners
Original Language: English
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Sources
Carol Bird, "Eugene O'Neill—The Inner Man", in Theatre Magazine (June 1924), p. 9
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eugene_O'Neill
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Eugene O'Neill
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