Edward Albee: "I write about people who are very articulate about choosing not to communicate," he says. "They lie to themselves. They can communicate, but they don't."

The world he depicted 30 years ago, he says, is only getting worse. "We still treat our old people very badly. We still destroy our kids by trying to turn them into carbon copies of ourselves. We are governed by knaves and fools. Every time you write a play, you think you portray a situation that people will try to change. Unfortunately, I haven't seen that happen."

Mr. Albee drew his own conclusions about family values early on. Two weeks after birth, he was adopted by Reed and Frances Albee, wealthy socialites who raised him in upscale Larchmont, N.Y. It was hate at first sight. "As young as I can remember, I despised their values," Mr. Albee says. "They were right-wing. They were bigots. I didn't like them at all."

"I write about people who are very articulate about choosing not to communicate," he says. "They lie to themselves. They can communicate, but they don't."

"I don't think we should go around being idiotically happy, but I think we should fully participate in our lives," he says. That includes acknowledging death.

"If you trick yourself into thinking that you're going to live forever, then there's time for everything. That's why so many people end up at the end of their lives never having lived."

That philosophy resonates in "Three Tall Women." The middle-aged character says, "Make 'em aware that they're dying from the minute they're alive."

"I think plays should be analyzed as a reality experience and not thought of as how they relate to the playwright," Mr. Albee says. "In theory, all plays should be produced with no one knowing who wrote them."

https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1995-10-29-1995302144-story.html