Tragedy, for me, is not a conflict between right and wrong, but between two different kinds of right.
Peter ShafferRead
Things rust, you know, like the heart. My cardiologist said, 'It's a pump; use it - that's the sole advice I've got to give you.' It's the same in playwriting. Don't theorise about it. Do it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creativity and passion require action rather than overthinking.
Peter Shaffer emphasizes that just as physical things can deteriorate without use, so too can talents and passions fade if they are not actively engaged. His cardiologist's advice serves as a metaphor for creative pursuits: to not dwell too much on theory but to actively create and express oneself through art.
Themes
CreativityActionPlaywritingPassionTheory
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on creativity, I quoted Peter Shaffer to inspire participants to take action in their projects.
More from Peter Shaffer
All quotes →I discover what I mean as I write. That can be both terrifically exciting and very dangerous, because when you look at your words later, you wonder, 'Did I really mean that, or am I just making verbal patterns?'
Peter ShafferRead
Rehearsing a play is making the word flesh. Publishing a play is reversing the process.
Peter ShafferRead
The Normal is the good smile in a child’s eyes - all right. It is also the dead stare in a million adults.
Peter ShafferRead
Similar quotes
A lot of young Latino actors have said to me, 'Why can't we get an Oscar? Why can't we be nominated?' And the terrible truth is that if you don't get the right parts, you're not going to be. Are you going to get an Oscar nomination for one of those Judd Apatow movies? Not likely, no matter what nationality you are.
Rita MorenoRead
If we look at the works of JS Bach ... on each page we discover things which we thought were born only yesterday, from delightful arabesques to an overflowing of religious feeling greater than anything we have since discovered.
Claude DebussyRead
If I want to write a movie, I'll write a screenplay, but if I have an idea for a book, it's something that I think can only be done novelistically.
Bret Easton EllisRead
One should really use the camera as though tomorrow you'd be stricken blind.
Dorothea LangeRead
In the big picture, architecture is the art and science of making sure that our cities and buildings fit with the way we want to live our lives.
Bjarke IngelsRead
To provide background and physical description and all the rest is of course vital to fiction, but vital only insofar as such detail is in the service of a richly imagined story, rather than in the service of good botany or good philosophy or good geography.
Tim O'BrienRead