How to Write a Play / Letters from Augier, Banville, Dennery, Dumas, Gondinet, / Labiche, Legouvé, Pailleron, Sardou, Zola

A play is a railway journey by an express train—forty miles an hour, and from time to time ten minutes stop for the intermissions; and if the locomotive ceases rushing and hissing you hiss.

In reality an author knows sometimes what he has tried to do, rarely what he has done;—and as to knowing how he did it, I defy him!

In brief, my dear friend, tho there are rules, and rules that are invariable, precise, and eternal for the dramatic art, rules which only the impotent, the ignorant, blockheads, and fools misunderstand, and from which only they wish to be freed, yet there is only one true method for the conception and parturition of a play—which is, to know quite exactly where you are going and to take the best road that leads there. However, some walk, others ride in a carriage, some go by train, X hobbles along, Hugo sails in a balloon. Some drop behind on the way, others run past the goal. This one rolls in the ditch, that one wanders along a cross-road.

In short, that one goes straight to the mark who has the most common sense. It is the gift which I wish for you—and myself also.

You ask me how a play is made.

By beginning at the end.