And in fact, I think one of the best guides to telling you who you are, and I think children use it all the time for this purpose, is fantasy. Peter Shaffer More Quotes by Peter Shaffer More Quotes From Peter Shaffer My actual childhood, as opposed to my adolescence, was not spent in London. Peter Shaffer adolescence childhood london All my wife has ever taken from the Mediterranean - from that whole vast intuitive culture - are four bottles of Chianti to make into lamps, and two china condiment donkeys labelled Sally and Peppy. Peter Shaffer humor taken funny Love is the only doorway from the prison of ourselves. Peter Shaffer prison doorways love-is The best of Mozart's works cannot be even slightly rewritten without diminishment. Peter Shaffer I was born in Liverpool in England, and I lived there for the first nine years of my life. Peter Shaffer nine years firsts All reined up in old language and old assumptions, straining to jump clean-hoofed on to a whole new track of being I only suspect is there. I can't see it, because my educated, average head is being held at the wrong angle. I can't jump because the bit forbids it, and my own basic force - my horsepower, if you like - is too little. Peter Shaffer track littles average Look... to go through life and call it yours - your life - you first have to get your own pain. Pain that's unique to you. You can't just dip into the common bin and say 'That's enough!'. Peter Shaffer pain unique looks You never quite know what's going to strike your imagination, or something that won't going to leave you alone, not going to leave alone, and this was one for me. Peter Shaffer never-quit imagination leave-me-alone Rehearsing a play is making the word flesh. Publishing a play is reversing the process. Peter Shaffer process flesh play It's an extraordinary thing about Mozart is that you never tire of him... he never bores me, and he doesn't... not only bore me, that's too strong a word. Peter Shaffer extraordinary-things tire strong What use, after all, is man, if not to teach God His lessons? Peter Shaffer lessons use men 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 light dark play I think I did have fantasies about being an actor. In fact, I know I did. Peter Shaffer actors facts thinking He'll be delivered from madness. What then? He'll feel himself acceptable! What then? Do you think feelings like his can be simply re-attached, like plasters? Stuck on to other objects we select? Look at him! ... My desire might be to make this boy an ardent husband - a caring citizen - a worshipper of abstract and unifying God. My achievement, however, is more likely to make a ghost! Peter Shaffer husband caring boys Figaro is a bad play. It stirs up hatred between the classes. In France, it has caused nothing but bitterness. My own dear sister,Antoinette, writes me that she is beginning to be frightened of her own people. Peter Shaffer fear writing class I speak for all mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint. Peter Shaffer champion mediocrity saint 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 horse girl sex You can't always let people do their own thing. Peter Shaffer people Librarians as a race tend to be tedious. Peter Shaffer librarian tedious race What was evident was that Mozart was simply transcribing music completely finished in his head. And finished as most music is never finished. Displace one note and there would be diminishment. Displace one phrase and structure would fall. I was staring through the cage of those meticulous ink strokes at Absolute Beauty. Peter Shaffer ink would-be fall
