Brooks Atkinson Quotes

United States, Critic
November 28, 1894 – January, 14, 1984.

Justin Brooks Atkinson was an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960. In his obituary, the Times called him "the theater's most influential reviewer of his time." A war correspondent during World War II, he received the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for his work as the Moscow correspondent for the Times.

Good plays drive bad playgoers crazy.

Brooks Atkinson
- Good
- Bad
- Crazy
In every age 'the good old days' were a myth. No one ever thought they were good at the time. For every age has consisted of crises that seemed intolerable to the people who lived through them.

Brooks Atkinson
- People
- Time
- Good

People everywhere enjoy believing things that they know are not true. It spares them the ordeal of thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for what they know.

Brooks Atkinson
- People
- Thinking
- True
It seems not to have been written. It is the quintessence of life. It is the basic truth.

Brooks Atkinson
- Life
- Truth
It takes most men five years to recover from a college education, and to learn that poetry is as vital to thinking as knowledge.

Brooks Atkinson
- Men
- Thinking
- Education
There is no joy so great as that of reporting that a good play has come to town.

Brooks Atkinson
- Good
- Great
- Joy
The most fatal illusion is the narrow point of view. Since life is growth and motion, a fixed point of view kills anybody who has one.

Brooks Atkinson
- Life
- Growth
Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go.

Brooks Atkinson
- God
- Past

Don't be condescending to unskilled labor. Try it for a half a day first.

Brooks Atkinson
After each war there is a little less democracy to save.

Brooks Atkinson
- War
- Democracy