does a JTextArea need some event listener?

I can get my applet to display text passed to it fine, but if I make changes in the JTextArea, when I hit the OK button, getSelectedText() returns nothing--not even the text that I put into it at the start. My guess is that there is something equivalent to an actionlistener (although it isn't that for JTextArea) that takes some action on the text.

import java.applet.Applet;
import javax.swing.*;

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;

public class textboxApplet extends Applet implements ActionListener {
	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1;
	boolean buttonPressed = false;
	boolean okay = false;

/**
	 * Constructor of the applet.
	 *
	 * @exception HeadlessException if GraphicsEnvironment.isHeadless()
	 * returns true.
	 */
	public textboxApplet() {
		super();
	}

/**
	 * Called by the browser or applet viewer to inform
	 * this applet that it is being reclaimed and that it should destroy
	 * any resources that it has allocated. The <code>stop</code> method
	 * will always be called before <code>destroy</code>. 
	 *
	 * A subclass of <code>Applet</code> should override this method if
	 * it has any operation that it wants to perform before it is
	 * destroyed. For example, an applet with threads would use the
	 * <code>init</code> method to create the threads and the
	 * <code>destroy</code> method to kill them. 
	 */
	public void destroy() {
		// Put your code here
	}

/**
	 * Returns information about this applet. An applet should override
	 * this method to return a <code>String</code> containing information
	 * about the author, version, and copyright of the applet. 
	 *
	 * @return a string containing information about the author, version, and
	 * copyright of the applet.
	 */
	public String getAppletInfo() {
		return "This is my default applet created by Eclipse";
	}
	
	/**
	 * Called by the browser or applet viewer to inform
	 * this applet that it has been loaded into the system. It is always
	 * called before the first time that the <code>start</code> method is
	 * called. 
	 *
	 * A subclass of <code>Applet</code> should override this method if
	 * it has initialization to perform. For example, an applet with
	 * threads would use the <code>init</code> method to create the
	 * threads and the <code>destroy</code> method to kill them. 
	 */
	public void init() {
		System.err.println("entering init");
		buttonPressed = false;
		try
		{
			SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(new Runnable() 
			{
				public void run()
				{
					//add(new JLabel("hello CIS"));
				}
			});
		}
		catch (Exception e)
		{
			System.err.println("textBoxGUI didn't complete successfully");
		}
	}
	
	/**
	 * Called by the browser or applet viewer to inform
	 * this applet that it should start its execution. It is called after
	 * the <code>init</code> method and each time the applet is revisited
	 * in a Web page. 
	 *
	 * A subclass of <code>Applet</code> should override this method if
	 * it has any operation that it wants to perform each time the Web
	 * page containing it is visited. For example, an applet with
	 * animation might want to use the <code>start</code> method to
	 * resume animation, and the <code>stop</code> method to suspend the
	 * animation. 
	 */
	public void start() {
		System.out.println("entering start");
		}
	
	/**
	 * Replaces the Javascript prompt function. It puts up a textbox, OK and Cancel buttons, 
	 * and returns a String if the user hits OK. 
	 * @param msg: 	the prompt to the user
	 * @return:		String
	 * @throws InterruptedException 
	 */
	 public String textbox(String prompt, String defaultText) throws InterruptedException {
		 System.err.println("entering textbox: prompt" + prompt + "; defaultText=" + defaultText);
		 setLayout(new FlowLayout());
		 JPanel p = new JPanel();
		 add(p);
		 JLabel promptMsg = new JLabel(prompt);
		 p.add(promptMsg);
		 System.err.println("added prompt to container");
		 JTextArea textBlock = new JTextArea(5, 40);
		 textBlock.setText(defaultText);
		 textBlock.setBorder(BorderFactory.createLineBorder(Color.black));
		 textBlock.setLineWrap(true);
		 textBlock.setWrapStyleWord(true);
		 JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(textBlock);
		 scrollPane.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(ScrollPaneConstants.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_AS_NEEDED);
		 textBlock.setEditable(true);
		 p.add(scrollPane);
		 System.err.println("added JTextArea to container");
		 JPanel buttons = new JPanel();
		 p.add(buttons);
		 addButton(buttons, "OK");
		 System.err.println("added OK button to container");
		 addButton(buttons, "Cancel");
		 System.err.println("added Cancel button to container");
		 setVisible(true);
		 validate();
		 while (!buttonPressed)
			 Thread.sleep(1000);
		 System.err.println("text to be returned = " + textBlock.getSelectedText());
		 return (okay ? textBlock.getSelectedText() : "");
 	}

private void addButton(Container c, String s)
	 {
		 JButton b = new JButton(s);
		 c.add(b);
		 b.addActionListener(this);
	 }
	 
	/**
	 * Called by the browser or applet viewer to inform
	 * this applet that it should stop its execution. It is called when
	 * the Web page that contains this applet has been replaced by
	 * another page, and also just before the applet is to be destroyed. 
	 *
	 * A subclass of <code>Applet</code> should override this method if
	 * it has any operation that it wants to perform each time the Web
	 * page containing it is no longer visible. For example, an applet
	 * with animation might want to use the <code>start</code> method to
	 * resume animation, and the <code>stop</code> method to suspend the
	 * animation. 
	 */
	public void stop() {
		// Put your code here
	}

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
		String s = e.getActionCommand();
		System.err.println("actionPerformed: s=" + s.toString());
		buttonPressed = true;
		System.err.println("buttonPressed=" + buttonPressed);
		okay = s.equals("OK");
	}
}

getSelectedText returns only that text you selected; getText is the method that I needed.