Clive Barnes Quotations

It benefits from its nine-person cast, superb from top to bottom, and, let's face it, expectations so reduced as to be almost minimal.

As hard as the nails on a crucifix.

One of the most beautiful sights in dance is American Ballet Theatre in full flight.

One of the few things in dance to match the Royal Ballet's curtain calls is the Royal Ballet's dancing.

The mother is not dying exactly, but has reached a point in life where death is a familiar on the staircase.

Dance has become an exclusionary enterprise. To participate, one must be thinner than thin, of pleasing form, flexible, athletic and young. If you are not all these things, you will be allowed to dance in the privacy of your own living room. You just wouldn't dare to put yourself onstage.

Television is the first truly democratic culture - the first culture available to everybody and entirely governed by what the people want. The most terrifying thing is what people do want.

I am convinced that anyone can be a great writer . . . if he can only . . . tell the naked truth about himself and other people. That, a little technique with words and the willingness to bare heart, soul and body are really all it takes.

I don't see why people want new plays all the time. What would happen to concerts if people wanted new music all the time?

With few exceptions ... most jukebox musicals need a story line. But 'Ring of Fire' is basically just a Cash-and-carry anthology of an iconic singer.