SOURCE: "Odets at Center Stage," [Parts One and Two] in Theatre Arts, Vol. XLVII, Nos. 5 and 6, May and June, 1963, pp. 16-19, 74-76; pp. 28-30, 78-80.

Mendelsohn is an American educator, author, and critic. In the following interview conducted shortly before Odets's death, Odets comments on a wide range of topics, including theater, his influences, and his career in Hollywood.

[Mendelsohn:] I have a number of general questions and some specific ones; do you have any preference as to where we begin?

[Odets:] No, any way you choose to go is all right with me.

Well, let's begin with the idea that the playwright belongs to the theatre, rather than to the library.

Well, essentially there are two kinds of playwrights. Both can be excelling, but it would be necessary to make a distinction between the playwright who was essentially a theatre man and not a man of literature...