And we do remain boys. Most of our lives.

J.M. Barrie really got it right: if we could, most of us would stay boys for the rest of our days. This is both a good and bad thing. I’ve stayed youthful in my life and my writing and it’s helped me a great deal as an author. As a person around me—family member, loved one, etc.—it’s probably been filled with good days and bad years and endless frustrations. I’m sorry for that (and a million and one other things) but I’ve bumbled along about as well as I could for someone who has always been afraid and has often been abused and tried to be a man but more than occasionally reverted to being a child. Worse than baby shoes never worn, there have been several adult pairs of shoes that I have never adequately worn (not yet, anyway) and I am sorry for that as well.

I did try and I’ll keep on trying. I promise.

The best thing I can do is write. That’s what I’ve learned along the way. Be it six words or six thousand, I am a writer. It’s is my gift and my curse. It is who I am and the best of what I can be.

I believe the words inside this book represent me well. I trust that you too will find it so.

Neil LaBute

August 2016

ALL THE WAYS TO SAY I LOVE YOU

All The Ways To Say I Love You had its world premiere at the Lucille Lortel Theatre (MCC) in New York City in September 2016.

It was directed by Leigh Silverman.

MRS. JOHNSON Judith Light

Silence. Darkness.

A chair. Center stage. That is all.

After a moment, a woman enters and sits. Several files in one hand that go to her lap when she is settled in the chair.

She sits quietly for a moment, listening to the sound of an old classic playing somewhere. One of the greats, like Peggy Lee or Nina Simone.

Someone like that.

As this fades away, she begins to speak: