Kenneth Tynan Professions : CriticBorn : April 2, 1927Died : July 26, 1980 Browse All Authors Top 49 quotes by Kenneth Tynan A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car. Kenneth Tynan beautifulinspirationallife A neurosis is a secret that you don’t know you are keeping. Kenneth Tynan keeping-secretsneurosissanity How far should one accept the rules of the society in which one lives? To put it another way: at what point does conformity become corruption? Only by answering such questions does the conscience truly define itself. Kenneth Tynan doeintegrityway Show me a congenital eavesdropper with the instincts of a Peeping Tom and I will show you the making of a dramatist. Kenneth Tynan peepinginstincttheatre Art and ideology often interact on each other; but the plain fact is that both spring from a common source. Both draw on human experience to explain mankind to itself; both attempt, in very different ways, to assemble coherence from seemingly unrelated phenomena; both stand guard for us against chaos. Kenneth Tynan differentspringart 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. Kenneth Tynan theatrecriticismdrama All of life is more or less what the French would call s'imposer, to be able to create one's own terms for what one does. Kenneth Tynan abledoelife 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. Kenneth Tynan divorcehusbandhome 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. Kenneth Tynan strongforeverart A villain who shares one's guilt is inevitably more attractive than a hero convinced of one's innocence. Kenneth Tynan innocenceguilthero 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. Kenneth Tynan intuitiondoubtfeelings It is Ireland's sacred duty to send over, every few years, a playwright to save the English theater from inarticulate glumness. Kenneth Tynan sacredtheateryears The greatest films are those which show how society shapes man. The greatest plays are those which show how man shapes society. Kenneth Tynan shapesplaymen We shall be judged by what we do, not by how we felt while we were doing it. Kenneth Tynan judgedfelt 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." Kenneth Tynan luxuryindulge-indespair The buttocks are the most aesthetically pleasing part of the body because they are non-functional. Although they conceal an essential orifice, these pointless globes are as near as the human form can ever come to abstract art. Kenneth Tynan essentialsbodyart 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. Kenneth Tynan cuttingcommunicationwriting Pearl is a disease of oysters. Levant is a disease of Hollywood. Kenneth Tynan oystershollywoodpearls When you've seen all of Ionesco's plays, I felt at the end, you've seen one of them. Kenneth Tynan feltendsplay The unique thing about Margaret Rutherford is that she can act with her chin alone. Among its many moods I especially cherish the chin commanding, the chin in doubt, and the chin at bay. Kenneth Tynan cherishuniquedoubt Similar Authors Betty Churcher critic Brooks Atkinson critic Brendan Gill critic Arthur Chu critic Arlene Croce critic Anita Sarkeesian criticAll Authors
