21 Peter Shaffer Quotes for You to Enjoy

Peter Shaffer

English Playwright

Born: May 15, 1926

Died: Jun 6, 2016

First Me People Think Word You

Related authors: Christopher Fry Edward Bond Francis Beaumont Jack Thorne John Osborne John Webster Laurence Housman Noel Coward

The rhetoric is the key to the character. It's the verbal music of the piece. Peter Shaffer

Music Character Key Piece Verbal Rhetoric

Passion, you see, can be destroyed by a doctor. It cannot be created. Peter Shaffer

You Doctor Passion Destroyed See Cannot Created Medical

Art and literature are my surrogate religions. Peter Shaffer

Art Religions Surrogate Literature

If London is a watercolor, New York is an oil painting. Peter Shaffer

Painting London New York New York Oil Watercolor

Black Comedy is a farce that is played in the dark, as you know, with the lights full on. It's the Chinese convention of reversing light and dark, and exactly where anybody is at any given moment is the play. Peter Shaffer

You Dark Light Comedy Black Black Comedy Exactly Given Lights Know Reversing Any Any Given Moment Anybody Where Convention Chinese Farce Full Full-On Moment Play Played

But the first published thing I did was a detective story, detective novel, and I did that on my own. Peter Shaffer

First Own Detective Detective Story My Own Did Story Novel Published Thing

I think plays, like books, are endemic. They grow out of the soil of the writer and the place he's writing about. I think, you just can't move them about, you know. Peter Shaffer

You Writing Soil Think Books Out About Writer He Like Know Endemic Move Just Place Them Grow Plays

I think possibly the first film that has music as its leading character. Peter Shaffer

Music Character First Think Possibly Leading Film

It is very, very difficult for a playwright to write a scene in which a young man has his first deep experience of sex with a girl whom he found immensely attractive, is fully satisfied by this event and gets up and blinds a lot of horses. Peter Shaffer

Man Experience Sex Girl First Young Satisfied Difficult Playwright Immensely Scene Horses Write He Attractive Blinds His Lot Up Very Gets Which Young Man Fully Deep Whom Event Found

Librarians as a race tend to be tedious. Peter Shaffer

Tend Race Tedious

My actual childhood, as opposed to my adolescence, was not spent in London. Peter Shaffer

Spent London Adolescence Opposed Childhood Actual

They look so expectant, and then they look so depressed... that was the other great lesson that The Royal Hunt of the Sun taught me, it was the profundity that masked drama can achieve, that of course, the audience were not seeing masks moving at all. Peter Shaffer

We... our war began September the 3rd 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany, and thereafter the great state of danger in England at that time, with the bombings, necessitated the evacuation of children. Peter Shaffer

War Time Great September State Our Danger Invasion Poland Began Germany Children Evacuation England Thereafter

I've seen the most remarkable thing. It's in the New York Public Library. They've got the original typescript of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' - all four acts of it. Peter Shaffer

Library Seen Earnest Remarkable New Importance Most Got York New York Being Public Public Library Original Acts Thing Four

I discover what I mean as I write. That can be both terrifically exciting and very dangerous, because when you look at your words later, you wonder, 'Did I really mean that, or am I just making verbal patterns?' Peter Shaffer

I was brought up in an Orthodox Jewish household. I don't think I ever had a single discussion with my parents about faith. It was just something gently imposed. Peter Shaffer

Faith Parents Single Think Brought About Something Had Household Gently Imposed Up Discussion Just Just Something Ever Orthodox Jewish

Things rust, you know, like the heart. My cardiologist said, 'It's a pump; use it - that's the sole advice I've got to give you.' It's the same in playwriting. Don't theorise about it. Do it. Peter Shaffer

You Heart Advice Playwriting Pump Sole About Give Rust Like Know Said Got Same Use Things

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