Eric Bentley Quotes

United Kingdom, Critic
September 14, 1916

Eric Russell Bentley (born September 14, 1916) is a British-born American theater critic, playwright, singer, editor, and translator. In 1998, he was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the New York Theater Hall of Fame, recognizing his many years of cabaret performances.

Fashion, which elevates the bad to the level of the good, subsequently turns its back on bad and good alike.

Eric Bentley
- Good
- Fashion
- Elevates
Geography is about maps, but biography is about chaps.

Eric Bentley
- Geography
- Maps
- Biography

Ours is the age of substitutes: Instead of language we have jargon; instead of principles, slogans; and instead of genuine ideas, bright suggestions.

Eric Bentley
Even in a jungle, lovely flowers will spring up here and there, such being the fecundity of nature, and however badly our pastors and masters run our society, however much they pull to pieces that which they claim to be keeping intact, nature remains fecund, human beings are born with human traits, sometimes human strength outweighs human weakness, and human grace shows itself amid human ugliness. ‘In the bloodiest times,’ as our play has it, ‘there are kind people.’

Eric Bentley
- Nature
- Society
- Shows
If melodrama is the quintessence of drama, farce is the quintessence of theatre. Melodrama is written. A moving image of the worldis provided by a writer. Farce is acted. The writer's contribution seems not only absorbed but translated.... One cannot imagine melodrama being improvised. The improvised drama was pre-eminently farce.

Eric Bentley
- Theatre
- Writer
- Image
Like dreams, farces show the disguised fulfillment of repressed wishes.

Eric Bentley
- Dreams
- Show
- Wishes
If one truly has lost hope, one would not be on hand to say so.

Eric Bentley
- Hope
- Lost
- Hand
A play has two authors, the playwright and the actor.

Eric Bentley
- Play
- Actor
- Authors