Playwright Doug Wright had been working at his craft for almost a decade when he enjoyed success with the 1995 Off-Broadway staging of "Quills", a play inspired equally by the life of the Marquis de Sade and the raging debate over censorship of the arts in contemporary America. Following his graduation from Yale, Wright enrolled in the master's program in playwriting at New York University. The same year he completed that program his short play "The Stonewater Rapture", about the sexual awakening of two Texas teenagers. He went on to pen several plays, including "Interrogating the Nude", "Lot 13: The Bone Violin" and "Dinosaurs". In 1989, Wright collaborated with Michael John LaChiusa and director Christopher Ashley on the campy stage musical "Buzzsaw Berkeley", which was produced at the WPA Theater in NYC. Five years later, the same organization presented "Watbanaland", a critically-praised comedy about a businessman who impregnates his secretary who in turn meets an African tribal chief who aids in her attempt to run away.

When he received a biography of the Marquis de Sade as a gift, Wright became intrigued by the notorious author and was struck by one incident wherein the writer's paper and quill pens were confiscated in order to prevent him from creating his pornographic prose. Utilizing that image as a jumping off point, and addressing the themes of censorship and the role of the artist in society, Wright crafted "Quills". When it was produced in 1995 at the New York Theater Workshop, "Quills" earned rave reviews and enjoyed a successful run. After landing an OBIE award, Wright saw the play go on to productions throughout the USA and Canada. When it came time to adapt the material for the big screen, Wright took a shot and was fortunate to land Philip Kaufman as his director. Kaufman, no stranger to controversy regarding sex on screen (see "Henry and June" 1990), sensitively handled the adaptation, working closely with the writer to fine tune the screenplay. The film garnered excellent notices, particularly for its stars Geoffrey Rush (as de Sade), Joaquin Phoenix and Kate Winslet, and was dubbed the best of the year by the National Board of Review. By that time, Wright had completed his adaptation of Stephen Dobyns' novel "Church of the Dead Girls" for Good Machine.