6 Quotes & Sayings By Stephen Adly Guirgis

Stephen Adly Guirgis was born in New York City, New York, and grew up in the Bronx. In his early twenties he moved to New Orleans where he worked as a bike messenger, a hotel doorman, a bartender, a dishwasher, and a cook before being laid off from his job at a restaurant. While working as a cook, he began writing plays. He has been a full-time writer since 1992 Read more

His plays have been performed around the world and translated into seven languages. He has received the Obie Award and the Drama Desk Award for his plays Dogeaters, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, The Red Light Bandit, and The Egyptian Lover. For his play The Last Days of Judas Iscariot he won both the Obie and the Drama Desk Awards in 2002.

In 2004 he received the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award for drama for his play The Red Light Bandit which was also adapted to film by Peter Medak starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts.

1
Right now, I am in Fallujah. I am in Darfur. I am on Sixty-third and Park having dinner with Ellen Barkin and Ron Perelman.. Right now, I'm on Lafayette and Astor waiting to hit you up for change so I can get high. I'm taking a walk through the Rose Garden with George Bush. I'm helping Donald Rumsfeld get a good night's sleep.. I was in that cave with Osama, and on that plane with Mohamed Atta..And what I want you to know is that your work has barely begun. And what I want you to trust is the efficacy of divine love if practiced consciously. And what I need you to believe is that if you hate who I love, you do not know me at all. And make no mistake, "Who I Love" is every last one. I am every last one. People ask of me: Where are you? Where are you?.. Verily I ask of you to ask yourself: Where are you? Where are you?. Stephen Adly Guirgis
2
No parent should have to bury a child .. No mother should have to bury a son. Mothers are not meant to bury sons. It is not in the natural order of things. I buried my son. In a potter's field. In a field of Blood. In empty, acrid silence. There was no funeral. There were no mourners. His friends all absent. His father dead. His sisters refusing to attend. I discovered his body alone, I dug his grave alone, I placed him in a hole, and covered him with dirt and rock alone. I was not able to finish burying him before sundown, and I'm not sure if that affected his fate ..I begrudge God none of this. I do not curse him or bemoan my lot. And though my heart keeps beating only to keep breaking-- I do not question why. I remember the morning my son was born as if it was yesterday. The moment the midwife placed him in my arms, I was infused with a love beyond all measure and understanding. I remember holding my son, and looking over at my own mother and saying, "Now I understand why the sun comes up at day and the stars come out at night. I understand why rain falls gently. Now I understand you, Mother" ..I loved my son every day of his life, and I will love him ferociously long after I've stopped breathing. I am a simple woman. I am not bright or learn-ed. I do not read. I do not write. My opinions are not solicited. My voice is not important .. On the day of my son's birth I was infused with a love beyond all measure and understanding .. The world tells me that God is in Heaven and that my son is in Hell. I tell the world the one true thing I know: If my son is in Hell, then there is no Heaven--because if my son sits in Hell, there is no God. . Stephen Adly Guirgis
3
JACKIE. I swear to God: Being in love with Veronica - it's like feeding your love to Godzilla every morning, and every morning you go "Yo, 'Zilla, these shits are very delicate so please chew softly", - and every morning - the motherfucker just goes crunch! Stephen Adly Guirgis
4
God is fucking stealing souls again! Stephen Adly Guirgis
5
Do you know who W.H. Auden was, Mr. Iscariot? W.H. Auden was a poet who once said, “God may reduce you on Judgement Day to tears of shame reciting by heart the poems you would have written had your life been good”… She was my poem, Mr. Iscariot. Her and the kids. But mostly her. You cashed in for silver, Mr. Iscariot. But me? Me…I threw away gold. That’s a fact. That’s a natural fact. Stephen Adly Guirgis