Famous quotes by Playwrights

Playwrights

Explore reflections from playwrights whose words illuminate the stage and the world beyond. Their observations on craft, character, and community reveal how drama distills the complexity of everyday life into moments of clarity and wonder. Whether you are a theater lover, student, or simply curious about storytelling, these voices offer perspective on creativity, collaboration, and the courage it takes to put dialogue in motion. Let their lines spark thought, invite empathy, and celebrate the enduring power of live narrative.

"Weak minds sink under prosperity as well as adversity; but strong and deep ones have two high tides"

David Hare, Playwright

Small: David Hare

"That's how it is on this bitch of an earth"

Samuel Beckett, Playwright

Small: Samuel Beckett

"I can't go on. I'll go on"

Samuel Beckett, Playwright

Small: Samuel Beckett

"A neurotic is a man who builds a castle in the air. A psychotic is the man who lives in it. A psychiatrist is the man who collects the rent"

Jerome Lawrence, Playwright

"Where there's tea there's hope"

Arthur W. Pinero, Playwright

"People are wrong when they say opera is not what it used to be. It is what it used to be. That is what's wrong with it"

Noel Coward, Playwright

Small: Noel Coward

"They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more"

Samuel Beckett, Playwright

Small: Samuel Beckett

"Dublin university contains the cream of Ireland: Rich and thick"

Samuel Beckett, Playwright

Small: Samuel Beckett

"Won't you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you"

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Playwright

Small: Richard Brinsley Sheridan

"If you want to eat well in England, eat three breakfasts"

W. Somerset Maugham, Playwright

Small: W. Somerset Maugham

"The love that lasts longest is the love that is never returned"

W. Somerset Maugham, Playwright

Small: W. Somerset Maugham

"Modesty is a quality in a lover more praised by the women than liked"

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Playwright

Small: Richard Brinsley Sheridan

"Death comes for us all. Even for kings he comes"

Robert Bolt, Playwright

"I have learned to hate all traitors, and there is no disease that I spit on more than treachery"

Aeschylus, Playwright

Small: Aeschylus

"Where there's life, there's hope"

Terence, Playwright

Small: Terence

"A suicide kills two people, Maggie, that's what it's for!"

Arthur Miller, Playwright

Small: Arthur Miller

"Nothing is funnier than unhappiness, I grant you that. Yes, yes, it's the most comical thing in the world"

Samuel Beckett, Playwright

Small: Samuel Beckett

"Bronze in the mirror of the form, wine of the mind"

Aeschylus, Playwright

Small: Aeschylus

"Nothing is said that has not been said before"

Terence, Playwright

Small: Terence

"A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself"

Arthur Miller, Playwright

Small: Arthur Miller

"Let us celebrate the occasion with wine and sweet words"

Plautus, Playwright

Small: Plautus

"God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December"

James M. Barrie, Playwright

"Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better"

Samuel Beckett, Playwright

Small: Samuel Beckett

"We have long passed the Victorian Era when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby"

W. Somerset Maugham, Playwright

Small: W. Somerset Maugham

"You know it is not my interest to pay the principal, or my principal to pay the interest"

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Playwright

Small: Richard Brinsley Sheridan

"Conquered, we conquer"

Plautus, Playwright

Small: Plautus

"There's man all over for you, blaming on his boots the fault of his feet"

Samuel Beckett, Playwright

Small: Samuel Beckett

"It wasn't until late in life that I discovered how easy it is to say "I don't know.""

W. Somerset Maugham, Playwright

Small: W. Somerset Maugham

"Love is only a dirty trick played on us to achieve continuation of the species"

W. Somerset Maugham, Playwright

Small: W. Somerset Maugham

"Man must shape his tools lest they shape him"

Arthur Miller, Playwright

Small: Arthur Miller

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