THE THEATRE QUOTATION BOOK

THE THEATRE QUOTATION BOOK by Russell Vandenbroucke (Limelight Editions) is another little gem. Vandenbroucke has researched 900 anecdotes, aphorisms and adages dealing with the theater and has broken them down by genre and theme. Some of them are funny, others are insulting, savage or telling. Some examples:

"An actor is a sculptor who carves in snow." (Edwin Booth).

"If Hitler is alive, I hope he's out of town with a musical." (Larry Gelbart).

"I speak, then some bullshit. I speak some more, more bullshit. Then I speak again." (Anonymous actor, describing his scene).

"It isn't a shortage of good scripts that ails the theatre, it is a shortage of producers who know a good script when they see one" (George Jean Nathan).