Alan Ayckbourn

thumb|Sir Alan Ayckbourn in 2010 Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE (born 12 April 1939) is one of England's most prolific and commercially successful comic playwrights. Quotes Few women care to be laughed at and men not at all, except for large sums of money. Preface to The Norman Conquests (New York: Grove Press, [1975] 1988) p. 11. There are very few people on top of life, and the rest of us don't like them very much. Newsweek (25 March 1979). A comedy is just a tragedy interrupted, I once said. Do you finish with the kiss or when she opens her eyes to tell him she loves him and sees blonde hairs on his collar? "A Crash Course in Playwriting" (1993) . The darker the subject, the more light you must try to shed on the matter. And vice versa. The Crafty Art of Playwriting (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) p. 3. They've started this filthy floodlit cricket with cricketers wearing tin hats and advertisements for contraceptives on their boots. A Gardener in Love, Intimate Exchanges (1982). About Ayckbourn Plays by Alan Ayckbourn have been attracting larger audiences in the regional theatres than those of Shakespeare. Press release by the Arts Council of Great Britain (2 November 1983). Reputed to be the source of the common, but unsubstantiated, statement that Ayckbourn is the second most performed playwright after Shakespeare. External links Category:1939 births Category:Living people Category:Playwrights from England Category:People from London Category:Laurence Olivier Award winners Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire