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Quote by Kenneth Tynan

“The man who reacts to the universe with a cry of impotent anguish is acceptable as an artist only if he can persuade us that he has sanely considered the other possible reactions and found them inadequate.”

Quote by Kenneth Tynan

Book:Tynan on theatre

Work

Tynan on theatre

This book delves into the intricacies of theatrical performance, exploring various aspects of stagecraft, directing, and acting through Tynan's insightful analyses and personal experiences in the field of theatre. more

Author

Kenneth Tynan, born on April 2, 1927, and died on July 26, 1980, was a British critic, writer, and actor. Known for his profound insights into theater and sharp criticism, Tynan had a significant impact on 20th-century British drama. more

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“When a society has doubts about its future, it tends to produce spokesmen whose main appeal is to the emotions, who argue from intuitions, and whose claim to be truth-bearers rests solely on intense personal feeling.”

Feelings Emotion Doubt Produce Claims Intuition Arguing Intense Appeals Personal Feelings

Author:Kenneth Tynan

“I attacked those Western playwrights who use their influence and affluence to preach to the world the nihilistic doctrine that life is pointless and irrationally destructive, and that there is nothing we can do about it. Until everyone is fed, clothed, housed and taught, until human beings have equal leisure to contemplate the overwhelming fact of mortality, we should not (I argued) indulge in the luxury of "privileged despair."”

“Does the critic wish to influence the kind of film that costs more than £250,000? It is as if he were to send a postcard to General Motors explaining that he would like them to make a raft next year, or a helicopter, instead of a car.”

Ifs Years Kind Doe Film Next Wish Influence Car Cost Critics Explaining Motor Next Year Helicopters Postcards General Motors

Author:Kenneth Tynan

“Everyone is vulnerable who is at once gifted and gregarious.”

Vulnerable Gifted Gregarious

Author:Kenneth Tynan

“Judge and prosecutor had hammered it home that Lady Chatterly was an immoral woman, that she had had sexual relations before marriage, that she had committed adultery under her husband's roof; as if these charges somehow disqualified her from participation in serious literature. Indeed, there were long periods of the trial during which an outsider might well have assumed that a divorce case was being heard.”

“In most writers, style is a welcome, an invitation, a letting down of the drawbridge between the artist and the world. Shaw had no time for such ruses. Unlike most of his countrymen, he abominated charm, which he regarded as evidence of chronic temperamental weakness.”

World Artist Style Weakness Evidence Welcome Charm Invitations Countrymen

Book:Curtains: Selections from the Drama Criticism and Related Writings

Source: Curtains: Selections from the Drama Criticism and Related Writings

“Dichotomy = operation performed on lesbians to make them normal.”

Normal Operations Dichotomy

Author:Kenneth Tynan

“I'm quite good friends with the putative director, Vincenzo Natali, and I'm a big fan of his work, but beyond that, I don't like to talk about other people's work work-in-progress.”

People Bigs Progress Fans Directors Good Friend Work In Progress

Author:William Gibson

“A villain who shares one's guilt is inevitably more attractive than a hero convinced of one's innocence.”

Share Hero Guilt Convinced Innocence Attractive Villain

Author:Kenneth Tynan

“All writing is an antisocial act, since the writer is a man who can speak freely only when alone; to be himself he must lock himself up, to communicate he must cut himself off from all communication; and in this there is something always a little mad.”

Men Writing Littles Speak Cutting Communication Mad Communicate Locks Antisocial

Book:Curtains: Selections from the Drama Criticism and Related Writings

Source: Curtains: Selections from the Drama Criticism and Related Writings