“It may fairly be claimed that humanity has, within the past hundred years, found a way of carrying a theatre in its pocket; and so long as humanity remains what it is, it will delight in taking out its pocket-stage and watching the antics of the actors, who are so like itself and yet so much more interesting. Perhaps that is, after all, the best answer to the question, “What is a novel?” It is, or ought to be, a pocket-stage. Scenery, light, shade, the actors themselves, are made of words, and nothing but words, more or less cleverly put together. A play is good in proportion as it represents the more dramatic, passionate, romantic, or humorous sides of real life. A novel is excellent according to the degree in which it produces the illusions of a good play—but it must not be forgotten that the play is the thing, and that illusion is eminently necessary to success.”

— Francis Marion Crawford

The Novel: What It Is (1893)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It may fairly be claimed that humanity has, within the past hundred years, found a way of carrying a theatre in its poc…" by Francis Marion Crawford?

Francis Marion Crawford 13

Novelist, short story writer, essayist (1854-1909) 1854–1909

Jim Bishop (1907–1987) American journalist and author

“Stealing from capitalism is not like stealing out of our own pockets. Marx and Lenin have taught us that anything is ethical, so long as it is in the interest of the proletarian class and its world revolution.”

Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918–1989) General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party

Source: Red Horizons: Chronicles of a Communist Spy Chief, p. 47

“Canterbury Cathedral: The first ever pocket watch was found in the walls of its cloister many hundreds of years ago. I decided to come, in the rain, to play with the locals and, if time permitted, attend the evening service.”

Derren Brown (1971) British illusionist

TV Series and Specials (Includes DVDs), Trick of the Mind (2004–2006)

“I quite like the transitions of being an actor, because you get to explore these little pockets of life.”

Matt Smith (actor) (1982) English actor

As quoted in "The Big Interview : Matt Smith" at officiallondontheatre (14 May 2008 ) http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/news/interviews/view/item100026/Matt-Smith/
Context: I quite like the transitions of being an actor, because you get to explore these little pockets of life. So if you’re playing a builder you get to know about building, if you’re playing a scientist or a physician or something you get to know about physics. And similarly with this world I like exploring their culture, that very sort of upper middle class, addictive… that’s part of the reason I love it.

“The growing drama has outgrown such toys
Of simulated stature, face, and speech:
It also peradventure may outgrow
The simulation of the painted scene,
Boards, actors, prompters, gaslight, and costume,
And take for a worthier stage the soul itself,
Its shifting fancies and celestial lights,
With all its grand orchestral silences
To keep the pauses of its rhythmic sounds.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author

Book V.
Aurora Leigh http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barrett/aurora/aurora.html (1857)

“The best Kamerad inside the pocket will be the Kamerad outside the pocket.”

Walter Model (1891–1945) German field marshal

Der beste K.I.K wird K.A.K
To Colonel Günther Reichhelm on 11 April 1945. Model requested that Reichhelm join him for dinner before his departure. In the staff guest book at the officers' mess, the field marshal carefully wrote. Quoted in "Battle for the Ruhr" - Page 345 - by Derek S. Zumbro - 2006

“The world’s a theatre, the earth a stage
Which God and Nature do with actors fill.”

Thomas Heywood (1574–1641) English playwright, actor, and author

Apology for Actors, (1612). Compare: "The world's a stage on which all parts are played", Thomas Middleton, A Game of Chess (1624), Act v. Sc. 1.; "All the world ’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players", Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act ii. Sc. 7.

“The great enemy of human freedom is the Government. By taking money out of our pockets and spending it, it destroys our freedom.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

The National Times, Australia, (March 1, 1977)

“A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket: let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

22 September 1830.
Table Talk (1821–1834)
Context: A poet ought not to pick nature's pocket: let him borrow, and so borrow as to repay by the very act of borrowing. Examine nature accurately, but write from recollection; and trust more to your imagination than to your memory.

“IV. Every tax ought to be contrived as both to take out and to keep out of the pockets of the people as little as possible, over and above what it brings into the public treasury of the state.”

Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist

Source: (1776), Book V, Chapter II, Part II, p. 893.

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Francis Marion Crawford 13

Related quotes

Related topics