"To be able to write a play a man must be sensitive, imaginative, naive, gullible, passionate; he must be something of an imbecile, something of a poet, something of a liar, something of a damn fool"
About this Quote
The subtext is a defense of artistic vulnerability disguised as insult. “Gullible” isn’t stupidity so much as willingness: the capacity to believe in invented stakes long enough to make them contagious. “Liar” isn’t moral failure; it’s craft. Plays are constructed deceit - compression, coincidence, heightened speech - and the playwright has to commit to those deceptions with almost childlike faith, even while knowing they’re tricks. That tension is where theater lives: sincerity engineered through artifice.
Context matters. Sherwood wrote in an era when American playwrights were also public intellectuals, expected to “say something” about war, politics, modernity. Calling the playwright a “damn fool” punctures the prestige and acknowledges the risk: you’ll be sentimental when the room wants irony, earnest when the culture rewards cool. The line’s intent is both warning and permission - if you want to write for the stage, you must accept looking ridiculous, because that’s the cover charge for making an audience care.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Sherwood, Robert E. (2026, January 15). To be able to write a play a man must be sensitive, imaginative, naive, gullible, passionate; he must be something of an imbecile, something of a poet, something of a liar, something of a damn fool. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/to-be-able-to-write-a-play-a-man-must-be-163233/
Chicago Style
Sherwood, Robert E. "To be able to write a play a man must be sensitive, imaginative, naive, gullible, passionate; he must be something of an imbecile, something of a poet, something of a liar, something of a damn fool." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/to-be-able-to-write-a-play-a-man-must-be-163233/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"To be able to write a play a man must be sensitive, imaginative, naive, gullible, passionate; he must be something of an imbecile, something of a poet, something of a liar, something of a damn fool." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/to-be-able-to-write-a-play-a-man-must-be-163233/. Accessed 13 Feb. 2026.
