But the first published thing I did was a detective story, detective novel, and I did that on my own. Peter Shaffer More Quotes by Peter Shaffer More Quotes From Peter Shaffer The trouble is if you don’t spend your life yourself, other people spend it for you. Peter Shaffer inspire life people 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 purpose children thinking Tragedy, for me, is not a conflict between right and wrong, but between two different kinds of right. Peter Shaffer different tragedy two Everything we feel is made of Time. All the beauties of life are shaped by it. Peter Shaffer beauty-of-life made feels 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 writing book moving What the eye does not see, the heart does not grieve over, does it? Peter Shaffer eye heart grieving Passion, you see, can be destroyed by a doctor. It cannot be created. Peter Shaffer medical doctors passion I was an accomplice in my own frustration. Peter Shaffer accomplices my-own frustration The Normal is the good smile in a child's eyes- all right. It is also the dead stare in a million adults. It both sustains and kills- like a God. It is the Ordinary made beautiful; it is also the Average made leathal. The Normal is the indispensable, murderous God of Health. Peter Shaffer eye beautiful children If London is a watercolor, New York is an oil painting. Peter Shaffer oil-painting london new-york You have your words, and I have mine. Peter Shaffer mines Goodness is nothing in the furnace of art. Peter Shaffer furnaces goodness art The Normal is the good smile in a child’s eyes - all right. It is also the dead stare in a million adults. Peter Shaffer adults eye children A child is born into a world of phenomena all equal in their power to enslave. Peter Shaffer born children world Worship isn't destructive, Martin. I know that. I don't. I only know it's the core of his life. What else has he got? He can hardly read. He knows no physics or engineering to make to world real for him. No paintings to show him how others have enjoyed it. No music except television jingles. No history except tales from a desperate mother. No friends. Not one kid to give him a joke, or make him know himself more moderately. He's a modern citizen for whom society doesn't exist. Peter Shaffer real mother kids The devil isn't made by what Mommy says or what Daddy says. The devil is there. Peter Shaffer daddy devil made Can you think of anything worse one can do to anybody than take away their worship? Peter Shaffer worship can-do thinking I think people nowadays do tend to blame their parents for everything. Peter Shaffer parent people thinking All I ever wanted was to sing to God. He gave me that longing and then made me mute. Peter Shaffer longing mute god I made, over the years in Cambridge, several very good American friends, and America appeared to me, a land of promise in every sense of that word, a land of freedom from the inhibitions and restrictions that I felt in England. Peter Shaffer land america years