Michael Ritchie American Director Quotations

When it was narrowed down to eight names and I was called down for an interview, then it became more serious. Things went very fast.

Los Angeles has always been on the table with us.

Sitting in this chair, my recommendation would carry too much weight.

I feel that I'm leaving Williamstown too early, but I'd rather leave too early than too late.

I went into this job to do plays, but that's here for 10 weeks, and the rest of the year I do a lot of other things-the administrative work of planning, reading plays.

Just go out there and do it. It's not the easiest path.

I've spent a lot of time in LA, so I have a fairly good sense of what that world is, and that group has been supportive of the theater in the past.

I've never presented. The logistics of that is a challenge.

There's been a big spur in downtown development with new business, restaurants and a lot of loft buying. The buses run, and there's a subway that runs through downtown.

It's exciting to see a kid at a rehearsal meeting with someone who seems like such an icon.

The audience includes subscribers, so you have to be careful.

The new Kirk Douglas Theater for development of new plays and education in Culver City is an area doing a major redevelopment. We're part of that.

I'm going to miss the mix of the kids who are 21 and come up here and find themselves with people who are at the peak of their careers.

I have no interest in directing. I'd be a bad director.

I had no training in the theater. I did not study it but just did it.

I'll be going to the granddaddy of the Los Angeles theaters.

I had a lot of lucky breaks When I got a job that I had no training in; I just had to get good and work very, very hard, learning what I needed.

I'll miss the idea of 400 people coming together for such a short period of time. They arrive and then just start creating theater.

In next five to 10 years I probably would have done my best work, but I was afraid of having another 10 or 15 years ahead of me and feeling stale, so this was an opportunity to reinvigorate myself.

The trick is to have my own particular taste and feel for the theater to audiences who have been used to one particular style and taste for nearly 40 years.