Sarah Ruhl is a mother of three and one of America's best-known playwrights. She has written a stunningly original book of essays whose concerns range from the most minimal and personal subjects to the most encompassing matters of art and culture. The titles themselves speak to the volume's uniqueness: "On lice," "On sleeping in the theater," "On motherhood and stools (the furniture kind)," "Greek masks and Bell's palsy."
100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write is a book in which chimpanzees, Chekhov, and child care are equally at home. A vibrant, provocative examination of the possibilities of the theater, it is also a map to a very particular artistic sensibility, and an unexpected guide for anyone who has chosen an artist's life.
"Probing, bracing, and captivating . . . a cornucopia of compact, playfully profound observations on life in and out of theater."
Lisa Shea, Elle
"Delectable . . . Admirers of Ms. Ruhl's stylistically audacious plays will not be surprised at these oddly shaped but neatly chiseled pieces, none of which run more than a few hundred words or so, and some of which are just a sentence or two. But each is tightly packed with fresh thought, smart thinking and lively humor . . . I stopped dog-earing the pages of my favorites when I realized there were barely any pages left uncreased."
Charles Isherwood, The New York Times 2014 Holiday Gift Guide
"100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write is in fact a work of profound moral organization . . . its deeper purpose is to define the artist's relationship to truth and to demonstrate how, from within the correctness of the artistic process, life can be meaningfully understood . . . Ruhl has found the time to ask the right questions--it's up to us to make the time to think about her--and our--answers."
