Eric Bentley

“All political and religious systems have their root and their strength in the innate conservatism of the human mind, and its intense craving for stability and finality.”

“The life of the drama is not in the words but in the transaction between the lines.”

“In the theatre, as in life, we are all voyeurs.”

“The critic is the man who makes of his own taste a universal law.”

“The alternative to tragedy is not comedy. It is gossip.”

“Bad critics judge a work of art by comparing it with rubbish.”

“The opposite of a civilized man is not a barbarian, but a bore.”

“Diplomacy is the art of letting someone else have your way.”

“Art is a point of view, and a genius is a man who possesses a stronger and more penetrating point of view than other men.”

“The first law of the theatre is that the show must go on. The second law is that it must not go on too long.”

“Maturity is the capacity to endure uncertainty.”

“Any work of art is a confession.”

“Great drama is the souvenir of a great crisis.”

“What makes a good dramatist is the capacity to think aloud.”

“Realism is a style, an artifice, a convention, and not a slice of life.”

“Every good play is a problem play.”

“Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.”

“All great art is by its very essence in conflict with the society in which it appears.”

“Brecht is the poet of a new and terrible world.”

“The purpose of theatre is to show us what we are, not what we should be.”