How is playwriting like ping-pong?

My best friend, Jonathan Katz, was for a number of years the kid Ping-Pong champion of New York State. And when he was twelve or thirteen he wandered into Marty Reisman’s Ping-Pong parlor in New York City. Reisman was then the U.S. champion in table tennis and a genius, an absolute genius. Jonathan asked him, “What do I have to do to play table tennis like you?”

Reisman said, “First, drop out of school.”

That would be my advice to aspiring playwrights.

—David Mamet, to Playboy