Wendy Wasserstein describes the genesis of Uncommon Women in a telling anecdote: "I made the decision to write a play with all women after seeing all that Jacobean drama, where a man kisses the poisoned lips of a woman's skull and drops dead" (Interview 1987, 425). In a line that could have been lifted from one of her plays, she humorously calls into question familiar images of gender from the classic tradition, undercutting the high seriousness that reinforces them. Here, as in her other exchanges with interviewers, as well as in her essays and talks, Wasserstein discusses her motivations as a playwright with candor and explains what her craft entails for her. Such openness, which is certainly an aspect of her general appeal, is more than merely engaging. Like the plays she writes, Wasserstein's demystification of the portrait of the artist and the creative process pushes against the boundaries that exclude what differs from "all that Jacobean drama."