Art is a private thing, the artist makes it for himself; a comprehensible work is the product of a journalist. We need works that are strong, straight, precise, and forever beyond understanding.

The sheer complexity of writing a play always had dazzled me. In an effort to understand it, I became a critic.

Pearl is a disease of oysters. Levant is a disease of Hollywood.

A neurosis is a secret that you don’t know you are keeping.

What, when drunk, one sees in other women, one sees in Garbo sober.

Not content to have the audience in the palm of his hand, he goes one further and clinches his fist.

A novel is a static thing that one moves through; a play is a dynamic thing that moves past one.

A critic is a man who knows the way but can’t drive the car.

A city whose living immediacy is so urgent that when I am in it I lose all sense of the past.

A good drama critic is one who perceives what is happening in the theatre of his time. A great drama critic also perceives what is not happening.

Art is a private thing, the artist makes it for himself; a comprehensible work is the product of a journalist. We need works that are strong, straight, precise, and forever beyond understanding.