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Moss Hart

Moss Hart Books

Playwright

Moss Hart, a British playwright, was born on October 24, 1904, and died on December 20, 1961. He is renowned for his unique sense of humor and profound theatrical insight, considered one of the greatest playwrights of the 20th century.

act one

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Act One: An Autobiography

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Three plays

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Related Quotes

“There is something maddening about mediocrity that calls forth the worst in those who are forced to deal with it.”

Madness Mediocrity

Book:act one

Source: act one

“The general conception that all actors are born exhibitionists is far from the truth. They are quite the opposite. They are shy, frightened people in hiding from themselves- people who have found a way of concealing their secret by footlights, make up and the parts they play. Their own self rejection is what has made most of them actors.”

Theater Self Rejection

Book:act one

Source: act one

“New York is not a city to return to in defeat.”

Cities New York Return Defeat

Book:act one

Source: act one

“There's nothing the matter with Hollywood that a good earthquake couldn't cure.”

Matter Hollywood Cures Earthquakes

Author:Moss Hart

“A play for me never really takes on an aspect of reality until it has left the dryair of the study and begins to sniff the musty breezes of a bare stage.”

Play Reality Left Study Stage Aspect Breeze

Author:Moss Hart

“Other centuries had their driving forces. What will ours have been when men look far back to it one day? Maybe it won't be the American Century, after all. Or the Russian Century or the Atomic Century. Wouldn't it be wonderful, Phil, if it turned out to be everybody's century, when people all over the world--free people--found a way to live together? I'd like to be around to see some of that, even the beginning.”

People Ifs Men World Way Looks Has Beens Together Found Force Peace Wonderful Century One Day Driving Way To Live Driving Force

Author:Moss Hart

“So far as I know, anything worth hearing is not usually uttered at seven o'clock in the morning; and if it is, it will generally be repeated at a more reasonable hour for a larger and more wakeful audience.”

Ifs Knows Hours Morning Audience Seven Hearing Clock Reasonable

Book:act one

Source: act one

“Far more quickly than reason and logic, irony can penetrate rage and puncture self-pity.”

Self Reason Logic Rage Pity Irony Penetrate Self Pity Reason And Logic Puncture

Author:Moss Hart

“I have always understood the unbelieving look in the eyes of those whom success touches early - it is a look half fearful, as though the dream were still in the process of being dreamed and to move or to speak would shatter it.”

Looks Stills Dream Eye Moving Speak Process Half Understood Fearful

Author:Moss Hart

“You'd be surprised how many kings are only a queen with a moustache.”

Kings Queens Moustache

Author:Moss Hart

“Julie Andrews has a wonderful British strength that makes you wonder why they lost India.”

Lost Wonder Wonderful India British Andrew

Author:Moss Hart

“I have had many successes and many failures in my life. My successes have always been for different reasons, but my failures have always been for the same reason: I said yes when I meant no.”

Said Different Reason

Author:Moss Hart

“The only credential the city asked was the boldness to dream. For those who did, it unlocked its gates and its treasures, not caring who they were or where they came from.”

Dream Cities Caring Treasure Gates Boldness Not Caring

Book:act one

Source: act one

“Boredom is the keynote of poverty - of all its indignities, it is perhaps the hardest of all to live with - for where there is no money there is no change of any kind.”

Kind Poor Poverty Hardest Boredom No Money Indignity

Author:Moss Hart

“Poor people know poor people, and rich people know rich people. It is one of the few things La Rochefoucauld did not say, but then La Rochefoucauld never lived in the Bronx.”

People Knows Poor Rich Poor People Rich People Bronx

Book:act one

Source: act one

“The self-hatred that destroys is the waste of unfulfilled promise.”

Self Promise Waste Hatred Self Hatred

Book:Act One: An Autobiography

Source: Act One: An Autobiography

“Can success change the human mechanism so completely between one dawn and another? Can it make one feel taller, more alive, handsomer, uncommonly gifted and indomitably secure with the certainty that this is the way life will always be? It can and it does!”

Way Life Feels Humans Doe Success Alive Secure Certainty Dawn Mechanism Gifted

Book:act one

Source: act one

“How many of us would be willing to settle when we're young for what we eventually get? All those plans we make...what happens to them? It's only a handful of the lucky ones that can look back and say that they even came close.”

Looks Happens Would Be Young Plans Willing Lucky Settling Handful

Book:Three plays

Source: Three plays

“All the mistakes I ever made were when I wanted to say 'No' and said 'Yes'.”

Made Said Wanted Mistake Lifeboats

Author:Moss Hart

“Nobody bores any man as much as an unhappy female.”

Men Female Unhappy Bores

Author:Moss Hart

“Charity in the theater begins and ends with those who have a play opening within a week of one's own.”

Ends Play Week Theater Charity Theatre Opening

Author:Moss Hart

“One begins with two people on a stage, and one of them had better say something pretty quick.”

People Two Stage Theatre

Author:Moss Hart

“A too constant preoccupation with money may seem to indicate the lack of a proper sense of moral values, but [let] those who have always had money . . . be without it for a while, and they will soon discover how quickly it becomes their chief concern.”

May Seems Values Money Moral Concern Constant Chiefs Preoccupation Moral Values

Author:Moss Hart

“One of the grave dangers inherent in the various stages of any theatrical career-whether it be budding, quiescent or diminishing-is the advice of friends.”

Actors Careers Advice Stage Danger Various Graves Inherent Theatrical

Book:act one

Source: act one

“Charity in the theatre usually begins and ends with people who have a play opening the week following one's own. Their unlikely benevolence is not so much a purity of heart as the knowledge that they face a firing line with rifles aimed in exactly the same direction.”

People Heart Ends Play Faces Lines Week Charity Following Theatre Opening Purity Unlikely Benevolence Rifles Firing

Book:act one

Source: act one

“The theatre breeds its own kind of cruelty, and its sadism takes on a keener edge since it can be enjoyed under the innocent guise of critical judgment.”

Kind Judgment Edges Critical Theatre Innocent Cruelty Enjoyed Guise Sadism

Book:act one

Source: act one

“There is nothing like tasting the grit of fear for rediscovering that the umbilical cord is made of piano wire.”

Made Family Piano Wire Grit Cords Tasting Umbilical Cord

Book:act one

Source: act one

“A sharp sense of the ironic can be the equivalent of the faith that moves mountains. Far more quicky than reason or logic, irony can penetrate rage and puncture self-pity.”

Self Reason Humor Moving Mountain Logic Rage Pity Irony Ironic Penetrate Self Pity Move Mountains Puncture

Book:act one

Source: act one

“Boredom is the keynote of poverty — of all its indignities, it is perhaps the hardest of all to live with — for where there is no money there is no change of any kind, not of scene or of routine. To be able to break out of its dark brown sameness.”

Dark Poor Poverty Rich Boredom Brown Rich And Poor Sameness

Author:Moss Hart

“Self-deception is sometimes as necessary a tool as a crowbar.”

Self Sometimes Tools Deception Self Deception

Book:act one

Source: act one

“I have had the irreplaceable opportunity of learning my profession with the proper tools, the most important of which is not a pencil or a typewriter, but the necessary time to think before using them.”

Thinking Important Time Opportunity Tools Profession Pencils Typewriters Time To Think Irreplaceable

Book:act one

Source: act one

“Playwriting, like begging in India, is an honorable but humbling profession.”

India Theater Profession Honorable Begging Humbling Playwriting

Author:Moss Hart

“The frivolity with which all theatrical activity is conducted has one consoling feature-there are no rules of behavior that apply regularly to any part of the theatre.”

Activity Behavior Theater Theatre Features Theatrical Consoling Frivolity

Book:act one

Source: act one

“There is nothing that one can say about acting, writing, producing or directing that cannot be revoked in the next breath. Nothing is immutable. The logic of one year is a folly of the next.”

Writing Years Next Acting Logic Theater Breaths Folly

Book:act one

Source: act one

“Without vanity a writer's work is tepid, and he must accept his vanity as part of his stock in trade and live with it as one of the hazards of his profession.”

Accepting Trade Profession Vanity Hazards

Book:act one

Source: act one

About the Author

Born: October 24, 1904
Died: December 20, 1961
Known for: Playwright
Quotes: 35

Related Topics

Theater Theatre People Self Logic Looks Play Poor Profession Reason

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

act oneRelated source material

Act One: An AutobiographyRelated source material

Three playsRelated source material

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