SOURCE: Jones, Chris. “The Glory Years.” American Theatre 15, no. 9 (November 1998): 20-2.

In the following essay, Jones presents commentary from Wilson and his colleagues focusing on his writing, specifically Book of Days.

In recent weeks, Lanford Wilson has been sitting quietly on the porch in his Sag Harbor, N.Y., home, alternately staring into space and reading several of his own full-length dramas.

“I've written a ton of plays,” the one-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama says wearily of his recent autumnal exploits. “It's obscene. And I would rather be doing just about anything else in the world than sitting here and reading them all. My plays used to be all over the place, and now it's like, ‘Who the hell wrote that?’”

He pauses for a moment, perhaps sensing that he has gone too far down the road of self-deprecation. “You know,” he adds, more philosophical...