Theatre Quotes
Words to the Wise
Quotations from a wide range of theatrical perspectives
For use in newsletters, season or fundraising brochures or emails, presentations--you name it.
Category | Quote | First | Last | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|
Acting |
Imagination! Imagination! I put it first years ago, when I was asked what qualities I thought necessary for success upon the stage. And I am still of the same opinion. Imagination, industry [hard work], and intelligence--the three I's--are all indispensable to the actor, but of these three the greatest is, without any doubt, imagination. |
Ellen | Terry | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
Playwriting, Shakespeare |
Shakespeare's plays are bad enough, but yours are even worse. [Tolstoy to Chekov] |
Leo | Tolstoy | Partial Payments: Essays on Writers and Their Lives, by Joseph Epstein |
Acting |
Know your lines and don't bump into the furniture. |
Spencer | Tracy | Friendly Advice by Jon Winokur |
Playwriting |
Show me a congenital eavesdropper with the instincts of a Peeping Tom and I will show you the making of a dramatist. |
Kenneth | Tynan | The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations, by Louis Phillips |
Critics |
A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car. |
Kenneth | Tynan | New York Times Magazine, Jan 9. 1966 |