Neil Simon Interview (Lawrence Grobel)

Lawrence Grobel has been a freelance writer for thirty years, Playboy calls him "the interviewer's interviewer." In 1985 he sat down with Neil Simon:

Lawrence: "How autobiographical a writer are you?"

Neil Simon: "Very, when I'm writing autobiographical plays. In a sense, everything you write is autobiographical because it is going through your brain, so it comes out like litmus paper, it always catches some of who you are. But even when you write the autobiographical plays, they are not specifically autobiographical. When people see plays like Come Blow Your Horn or Brighton Beach and Biloxie Blues, they'll ask, "Did that really happen? Did he say that?" Well, sometimes it's true, sometimes it's not. Sometimes I've given aspects of my life to somebody else, like my girl cousin, who had aspects of what I went through as a child. It's hard to discuss that writing process. It's like you throw it into a bowl, mix it up, and pour it out. But everything of you is in there."

Endangered Species, Writers Talk About Their Craft, Their Visions, Their Lives
by Lawrence Grobel
Published by DA CAPO Press (c) 2001
pg. 395