"What, when drunk, one sees in other women, one sees in Garbo sober."

"Pearl is a disease of oysters. Levant is a disease of Hollywood."

"The sheer complexity of writing a play always had dazzled me. In an effort to understand it, I became a critic."

"Art is a private thing, the artist makes it for himself; a comprehensible work is the product of a journalist. We need works that are strong, straight, precise, and forever beyond understanding."

"A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car."

"A good drama critic is one who perceives what is happening in the theatre of his time. A great drama critic also perceives what is not happening."

"A city whose living immediacy is so urgent that when I am in it I lose all sense of the past."

"Not content to have the audience in the palm of his hand, he goes one further and clinches his fist."

"A neurosis is a secret that you don't know you are keeping."

"A novel is a static thing that one moves through; a play is a dynamic thing that moves past one."