Norwegian playwright (1828-1906)
"The title of the play is Hedda Gabler. My intention in giving it this name was to indicate that Hedda as a personality is to be regarded rather as her father's daughter than as her husband's wife. It was not really my intention to deal in this play with so-called problems. What I principally wanted to do was to depict human beings, human emotions, and human destinies, upon a groundwork of certain social conditions and principles of the present day. When you have read the whole, my fundamental idea will be clearer to you than I can make it by entering into further explanations."
On writing...
- "Writing has... been to me like a bath from which I have risen feeling cleaner, healthier, and freer."
- "At the moment of conception one must be on fire, but at the time of writing, cold."
- "I can only speak freely through the mouths of characters in a play."
- "Before I write down one word, I have to have the character in mind through and through. I must penetrate into the last wrinkle of his soul. I always proceed from the individual; the stage setting, the dramatic ensemble, all of that comes naturally and does not cause me any worry, as soon as I am certain of the individual in every aspect of his humanity. But I have to have his exterior in mind also, down to the last button, how he stands and walks, how he conducts himself, what his voice sounds like. Then I do not let him go until his fate is fulfilled."
- "To live is to war with trolls in heart and soul. To write is to sit in judgement on oneself."
- "The essential thing is... to draw a clear distinction between what one has merely experienced and what one has spiritually lived through; for only the latter is proper material for creative writing."
