Controlled hysteria is what's required. To exist constantly in a state of controlled hysteria. It's agony. But everyone has agony. The difference is that I try to take my agony home and teach it to sing.
Arthur MillerRead
In the theater, while you recognized that you were looking at a house, it was a house in quotation marks. On screen, the quotation marks tend to be blotted out by the camera.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the distinction between reality and representation in theater and film.
Arthur Miller highlights how the perception of reality is altered in theatrical performances and films. The 'house in quotation marks' suggests that what we see on stage or screen represents an artificial version of reality, while the camera in film often obscures these distinctions, leading to a more immersive experience that blurs the lines between real and staged.
Themes
TheaterRealityRepresentationArtPerformance
In practice
Example use cases
Discussing the nature of reality in a film studies class.
More from Arthur Miller
All quotes →The word "now" is like a bomb through the window, and it ticks.
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Amos Oz is one of the finest novelists of this entire period. MY MICHAEL is a beautiful work of great depth and in some indescribable way lingers in the mind as a lyric song to his country's people as much as a moving love story.
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Just remember, kid, you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away.
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Oh,Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer.
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The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost.
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Good directing is good writing and good casting.
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This is not a book in the ordinary sense of the word. No, this is a prolonged insult, a gob of spit in the face of art, a kick in the pants to God, Man, Destiny, Time, Love, Beauty... what you will.
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