'Drawing from all the moments of your life'

 

“Everyone thinks they can write a play; you just write down what happened to you. But the art of it is drawing from all the moments of your life.” – Neil Simon
 

Simon, who was born on the Fourth of July 1927 and died on this date in 2018, grew up during the Great Depression, a time that was a "great shaper" for his life and his art.  Writing “life” became the grist for his creative mill.

 

One of America’s most prolific stage and screenwriters, he wrote more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, earning more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer.   After breaking onto the playwriting scene with Come Blow Your Horn (in 1961), Simon won his first Tony for the long-running, and one of the most widely performed plays in history, The Odd Couple. 

 

The first playwright to earn 15 “Best Play” awards, he also was given a Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement and won a Pulitzer Prize for Lost in Yonkers.  In 2006 he was presented America’s top humor award, the Mark Twain Prize.  A Broadway theater also has been named in his honor.   

 

Simon's advice to writers is try new things.    “If no one ever took risks,” he said,  “Michelangelo probably would have painted the Sistine floor.”