EDWARD ALBEE, Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf ?
"It was wartime, and Daddy was on his physical fitness kick...
Daddy's always admired physical fitness...
But, it was wartime, and Daddy got the idea all the men should learn how to box...self-defence.
I suppose the idea was if the Germans landed on the coast, or something, the whole faculty'd go out and puch 'em to death...(p.39).
"There are very few things in this world that I am sure of..
national boundaries,
the level of the ocean,
political allegiances,
practical morality...
none of these would I stake my stick on any more..
.but the one thing in this whole sinking world
that I am sure of is my partnership,
my chromosomological partnership in the creation of our blond-eyed, blue-haired...son". (p49)
"Why, the idea...
A teacher at a respected, conservative institution like this, in a town like New Carthage,
publishing a book like that ?
If you respect your position here, young man, young...
whippersnapper you'll just withdraw that manuscript...
I will not be made mock of...
Imagine such a thing...
A book about a boy who murders his mother and kills his father,
and pretends it's all an accident...
No, Sir, this isn't a novel at all..
.this is the truth...this really happened...to Me..." (p.83).
