Where choice begins, Paradise ends, innocence ends, for what is Paradise but the absence of any need to choose this action?

PROCTOR, his mind wild, breathless: I say--I say--God is dead!

Everybody likes a kidder, but nobody lends him money.

There is a misconception of tragedy with which I have been struck in review after review, and in many conversations with writers and readers alike. It is the idea that tragedy is of necessity allied to pessimism.

most of the time we settle for half and i like it better, even as i know how wrong he was and his death useless, i tremble for i confess that something peversley pure calls to me from his memory

I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been.

As a writer, I've always believed that while my work and I myself are embedded in whatever period I am writing about, clearly I am sensitive to the winds that are blowing in the culture. At the same time, I have always felt that the issue was not to deal with the problem in the abstract, but to deal with the people who are in that problem. The emphasis is on the people. The general problem begins to resolve itself even before the play is finished.