“My soul, sit thou a patient looker-on;
Judge not the play before the play is done:
Her plot hath many changes; every day
Speaks a new scene; the last act crowns the play.”

“But how can the characters in a play guess the plot? We are not the playwright, we are not the producer, we are not even the audience. We are on the stage. To play well the scenes in which we are "on" concerns us much more than to guess about the scenes that follow it.”

Clive Staples Lewis (1898–1963) Christian apologist, novelist, and Medievalist

“The best part about acting is reacting. Audiences don't know that they mustn't sit back and observe and say, "I will watch this." Whether it's my play or anybody's play, they must become participants. Too many people today are observing life instead of participating in it.”

Pat Carroll (actress) (1927) American actress

“The last act is bloody, however fine the rest of the play”

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and Christian philosopher

“I played it for my bride, and one day you will play for yours.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

“In books, or work, or healthful play,
Let my first years be past,
That I may give for every day
Some good account at last.”

Isaac Watts (1674–1748) English hymnwriter, theologian and logician

“I'm gonna give her all my soul.
I'm gonna play her Rock 'N' Roll.”

Tom Petty (1950–2017) American musician

“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

“Let the children play
And sit like flowers upon thy grave
And crown with flowers,—that hardly have
A briefer blooming-tide than they.”

Francis Turner Palgrave (1824–1897) English poet and critic

“There's a difference between playing and playing games. The former is an act of joy, the latter — an act.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer