“Show me a congenital eavesdropper with the instincts of a peeping Tom, and I will show you the makings of a dramatist.”
Pausing on the Stairs (1957)<!-- also quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (2014 edition) -->
Context: Useless, of course, to point out that the genesis of good plays is hardly ever abstract; that it tends, on the contrary, to be something as concrete and casual as a glance intercepted, a remark overheard, or an insignificant news item buried at the bottom of page three. Yet it is by trivialities like these that the true playwright's blood is fired. They spur him to story-telling; they bring on the narrative fit that is his glory and his basic credential. Show me a congenital eavesdropper with the instincts of a peeping Tom, and I will show you the makings of a dramatist. Only the makings, of course: curiosity about people is merely the beginning of the road to the masterpiece: but if that curiosity is sustained you will find, when the rules have been mastered and the end has been reached, that a miracle has happened.
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Kenneth Tynan 40
English theatre critic and writer 1927–1980Related quotes
"Faster Than The Speed Of Night" from the Bonnie Tyler album Faster Than The Speed of Night (1983)
Context: Let me show you how to drive me crazy,
Let me show you how to make me feel so good,
Let me show you how to take me to the edge of the stars and back again.
You've gotta show me how to drive you crazy,
You've gotta show me all the things you wanna happen to you,
We've gotta tell each other everything, we always wanted someone to do.
“Let the air strike our tune,
Whilst we show reverence to yond peeping moon.”
The Witch (1616), Act v. Sc. 2. "I ’ll charm the air to give a sound, While you perform your antic round", Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act iv. Sc. 1.
“Tom always did anger well. Hid it well, but showed it even better”
Source: The Piper's Son
“You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker”
“Show me a poet, and I'll show you a shit.”
The New Yorker, March 28, 1953, quoted in David Remnick, "Reporting It All: A.J. Liebling at 100", The New Yorker, March 29, 2004.
