“The first year I was in New York, I met Martha Graham. She said, 'Well, Mr. Wilson, what do you want to do in life?' I was 21 years old, and I said, 'I have no idea.' And she said, 'If you work long enough and hard enough, you'll find something.'”

American experimental theater director and playwright

Robert Wilson was an American experimental theater director and playwright. He worked across several disciplines, including choreography, performance, painting, sculpture, video art, and sound and lighting design. He is best known for Einstein on the Beach, created with Philip Glass and Lucinda Childs, and for his frequent collaborations with Tom Waits. In 1991, he founded The Watermill Center on Long Island, New York, as a place for performance work, and he continued to work with opera and theater companies and with cultural festivals.