English - Playwright | May 15, 1926 - June 6, 2016
You can't always let people do their own thing.
Peter Shaffer
PeopleYouAlwaysOwnThing
You never quite know what's going to strike your imagination, or something that won't going to leave you alone, not going to leave alone, and this was one for me.
AloneImaginationMeYouKnowNever
Watching Italian opera, all those male sopranos screeching, stupid fat couples rolling their eyes about. That's not love, it's just rubbish.
LoveEyesStupidFatWatchingOpera
I've seen the most remarkable thing. It's in the New York Public Library. They've got the original typescript of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' - all four acts of it.
New YorkLibraryNewOriginalSeen
I discover what I mean as I write. That can be both terrifically exciting and very dangerous, because when you look at your words later, you wonder, 'Did I really mean that, or am I just making verbal patterns?'
WordsYouLookWonderDangerous
Our function as playwrights to some extent is to make audiences see with their ears, because films make us see with our eyes much better.
EyesBetterSeeUsEarsFunction
Art and literature are my surrogate religions.
ArtLiteratureReligionsSurrogate
I'd be willing to bet that any incursion throughout history in which the invading country has proclaimed it is bringing benefits to the conquered is based on a lie.
HistoryLieCountryBenefitsWilling
I was brought up in an Orthodox Jewish household. I don't think I ever had a single discussion with my parents about faith. It was just something gently imposed.
FaithParentsThinkSingleJewish
A part of me is always envious of people who live in the present and are sustained by a sense of spontaneity. Even dogs have that capacity: they're always wanting to participate in something, and I don't often have that element in me.
LivePeopleMePresentDogsAlways
In London, 'Equus' caused a sensation because it displayed cruelty to horses; in New York, because it allegedly displayed cruelty to psychiatrists.
New YorkNewLondonCrueltyBecause
There used to be a certain condescension to Mozart. His music was regarded as pleasant. He was a porcelain figure playing a porcelain harpsichord.
MusicPlayingUsedPleasantHeHis
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