SOURCE: Evans, Everett. “A Long Journey: Multiple Ideas Spark Acclaimed ‘How I Learned to Drive’.” The Houston Chronicle (4 October 1994): 10.

In the following essay, Vogel reveals the inspiration for How I Learned to Drive.

Paula Vogel believes in letting an idea simmer before bringing it to life on stage.

“This is a play I carried in my head for 15 to 20 years,” Vogel said of How I Learned to Drive, the provocative off-Broadway hit making its Houston debut Wednesday at the Alley Theater.

“That's not unusual for me. Some of my plays have reached the writing phase in less time, but some have taken even longer. There's one project I've had in mind since I was 15 years old. Sometimes, you finally get the time and opportunity, you sit down and start to do the first 10 pages or so … then you realize, ‘I shouldn't be doing this yet.’ And you put...