Eric Bentley
Eric Bentley
Eric Russell Bentleyis a British-born American critic, playwright, singer, editor and translator. In 1998, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame and is a member of the New York Theater Hall of Fame in recognition of his many years of cabaret performances...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionCritic
Date of Birth14 September 1916
bright english-critic genuine instead ours
Ours is the age of substitutes: instead of language, we have jargon: instead of principles, slogans: and, instead of genuine ideas, bright ideas.
deal great longer
What I like about Clive / Is that he is no longer alive. / There is a great deal to be said / For being dead.
communication ideas age
Ours is the age of substitutes: Instead of language we have jargon; instead of principles, slogans; and instead of genuine ideas, bright suggestions.
biographies maps geography
Geography is about maps, but biography is about chaps.
dream wish farce
Like dreams, farces show the disguised fulfillment of repressed wishes.
fashion levels turns
Fashion, which elevates the bad to the level of the good, subsequently turns its back on bad and good alike.
play two theatre
A play has two authors, the playwright and the actor.
running spring flower
Even in a jungle, lovely flowers will spring up here and there, such being the fecundity of nature, and however badly our pastors and masters run our society, however much they pull to pieces that which they claim to be keeping intact, nature remains fecund, human beings are born with human traits, sometimes human strength outweighs human weakness, and human grace shows itself amid human ugliness. ‘In the bloodiest times,’ as our play has it, ‘there are kind people.’
hope cancer hands
If one truly has lost hope, one would not be on hand to say so.
drama moving theatre
If melodrama is the quintessence of drama, farce is the quintessence of theatre. Melodrama is written. A moving image of the worldis provided by a writer. Farce is acted. The writer's contribution seems not only absorbed but translated.... One cannot imagine melodrama being improvised. The improvised drama was pre-eminently farce.
george grotesque ought third wonder
George the Third / Ought never to have occurred. / One can only wonder / At so grotesque a blunder.
cannot furry simply
I cannot think of any repartee, / I simply wag my great, long, furry ears.