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.”

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

“Any work of art is a confession.”

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

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

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

“Maturity is the capacity to endure uncertainty.”

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

“Betrayal is the only truth that sticks.”

“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.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Every good play is a problem play.”

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

“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.”

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