57 Quotes by John Lahr

Identity is memory; when memory disappears, the self dissolves and love with it.

At least six of the plays in Wilson's series are, I think, first rate, and one, 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone,' is a masterpiece.

It has the look of the avant-garde, but the heart of a Hollywood production. It's the ultimate expression of business art. ... You leave the theater and they guide you right into the store.

First and foremost, I'd say my father, Bert Lahr ... gave me a love of theatre--its kinetic and emotional potential and its raffish backstage fun--and also set an artistic example of the importance of corrupting an audience with pleasure.

Writers don't always know what they mean - that's why they write. Their work stands in for them. On the page, the reader meets the authoritative, perfected self; in life, the writer is lumbered with the uncertain, imperfect one.

A cruel critic has never made anything; his glibness is a way of inflicting his emptiness on others.

Criticism is a life without risk.

Questions about political theatre always overlook America's most powerful and effective political theatre, which is always thriving: the American musical. The politics is conservative but, to my mind, effective and insidious.

The history of theatre is the history of first nights.