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
I regard the theatre as a serious business, one that makes or should make man more human, which is to say, less alone.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Theatre serves to connect people and enhance our humanity by reducing loneliness.
Arthur Miller emphasizes the importance of theatre as a medium that not only entertains but also fosters human connection and understanding. By engaging with stories and characters, audiences can see reflections of their own lives, leading to a deeper sense of empathy and community, ultimately reminding us that we are not alone in our experiences.
Themes
TheatreHumanityConnectionSolitudeArt
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a speech about the importance of the arts in education.
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.
Arthur MillerRead
The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost.
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Similar quotes
Fiction—and poetry and drama— cleanse the doors of perception.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
When I started, I was an artist; I wanted to be an artist. I became an actor almost by accident. I acted for fifteen years and tried to produce. I looked for stories that were the story beneath the story that you thought you knew, like 'The Candidate'.
Robert RedfordRead
At every premiere, I stand in the back, I never sit, worrying. And then maybe I hear them laugh or whatever, and the muscles unclench a little. But always, I feel like it's a fluke, that I'll never be able to do it again.
Sydney PollackRead
When I shoot, I try to feel the body and the face and the weight of the actor, because the character until that moment is only in the pages of the script. And very often, I pull from the life of my actors. I'm always curious about what these characters and these actors are hiding about their lives.
Bernardo BertolucciRead
Every human being is an artist, a freedom being, called to participate in transforming and reshaping the conditions, thinking and structures that shape and inform our lives
Joseph BeuysRead
There's a battle between what the cook thinks is high art and what the customer just wants to eat.
Mario BataliRead