west-end-theatre

"Kay: Remember what we once were and what we thought we'd be. And now this. And it's all we have, Allan, it's us. Every step we've taken—every tick of the clock—making everything worse. If this is all life is, what's the use? Better to die, like Carol, before you find it out, before Time gets to work on you. I've felt it before, Allan, but never as I've done tonight. There's a great devil in the universe, and we call it Time."

"Kay: I'll try to understand . . . so long as you really believe—and think it's possible for me to believe—that Time's not ticking our lives away . . . wrecking . . . and ruining everything . . . for ever . . . Alan: No, it's all right, Kay. I'll get you that book. You know, I believe that half our trouble now is because we think Time's ticking our lives away. That's why we snatch and grab and hurt each other. Kay: As if we were all in a panic on a sinking ship. Alan: Yes, it's like that. Kay: But you don't do those things—bless you! Alan: I think it's easier not to—if you take a long view. Kay: As if we're—immortal beings? Alan: Yes, and in for a tremendous adventure."

"Nay, what tickled me was him saying he must ha' come at wrong year. now that's as good as aught I've heard o' some time. If he's going around asking for people -- not friends of his, mind you -- and he doesn't know where they are nor what year they'll be here -- I reckon he's got his work cut out."

"A lot of use it is you or anybody else saying what they'd do if they had their time over again. A fat chance they have, haven't they? Time moves on and it takes you with it, whatever you say -- as I know only too well."

"But now I see that we do not understand ourselves, the nature of our lives. What seems to happen continually just outside the edge of our attention -- the little fears and fancies, as you call them -- may be all-important because they belong to a profounder reality, like the vague sounds of the city outside that we hear sometimes inside a theatre."

"Ormund: But being rich isn't simply the opposite of being poor. It's not really worth much -- being rich. Half the time there's a thick glass between you and most of the fun and friendliness of the world. There's something devilishly dull about most of the rich. Too much money seems to take the taste and colour out of things. It oughtn't to do, but it does -- damn it! Dr. Görtler: But power -- you have that, haven't you? Ormund: Yes, and that's a very different thing. Dr. Görtler: Ah! -- you like power. Ormund: Well, you get some fun out of it. I don't mean bullying a lot of poor devils. but putting ideas into action. And not being at the end of somebody else's bit of string."

"I suppose -- in the last resort -- you trust life -- or you don't. Well -- I don't. There's something malicious . . . corrupt . . . cruel . . . at the heart of it. We don't belong. We're a mistake."

"But time is not single and universal. It is only the name we give to higher dimensions of things. In our present state of consciousness, we cannot experience dimensions spatially, but only successively. That we call time. but there are more times than one."

"Some people, steadily developing, will exhaust the possibilities of their circles of time and will finally swing out of them into new existences. Others -- the criminals, madmen, suicides -- live their lives in ever darkening circles of their time. Fatality begins to haunt them. more and more of their lives are passed in the shadow of death."

"I have lived longer than you. I have thought more, and I have suffered more. And I tell you there is more truth to the fundamental nature of things in the most foolish fairy tales than there is in any of your complaints against life."

"Yes, but you do not know -- you will not understand -- that life is penetrated through and through by our feeling, imagination and will. In the end, the whole universe must respond to every real effort we make. We each live a fairy tale created by ourselves."

"The leg division, Mr. Spiggott. You are deficient in it — to the tune of one. Your right leg I like. I like your right leg. A lovely leg for the role. That's what I said when I saw you come in. I said, "A lovely leg for the role." I've got nothing against your right leg. The trouble is — neither have you."

"There's that marvellous unpunctuated motto over the lavatory saying, "Gentlemen lift the seat". What exactly does this mean? Is it a sociological description — a definition of a gentleman which I can either take or leave? Or perhaps it's a Loyal Toast? It could be a blunt military order, or an invitation to upper-class larceny."

"Now I can see one or two of you are thinking, now look here, what if one of our American friends makes a boo-boo, presses the wrong button, and sends up one of their missiles by mistake? It could not happen. You see, before they press that button they've got to get on the telephone to number 10 Downing Street, and say, "Now look, Mr. Macmillan, Sir, can I press this button?" And Mr. Macmillan will say "yes" — or "no" — as the mood takes him."

"Please, don't call me "vicar". Call me Dick. That's the sort of vicar I am."

"In fact, I'm not really a Jew, just Jew-ish. Not the whole hog, you know."

"Life, you know, is rather like opening a tin of sardines. We are all of us looking for the key. And, I wonder, how many of you here tonight have wasted years of your lives looking behind the kitchen dressers of this life for that key."

"Others think they've found the key, don't they? They roll back the lid of the sardine tin of life, they reveal the sardines, the riches of life, therein, and they get them out, they enjoy them. But, you know, there's always a little bit in the corner you can't get out. I wonder — I wonder, is there a little bit in the corner of your life? I know there is in mine."

"I'd like to make one thing quite clear at the outset. When you speak of a "train robbery", this in fact involved no loss of train."

"I went first to Germany, and there I spoke with the German Foreign Minister, Herr...Herr and there, and we exchanged many frank words in our respective languages; so precious little came of that in the way of understanding. I would, however, emphasise that the little that came of it was indeed, truly, precious."

"That is not to say that we do not have our own Nuclear Striking Force — we do, we have the Blue Steel; a very effective missile, as it has a range of one hundred and fifty miles, which means that we can just about get Paris — and, by God, we will."

"Now, we shall receive four minutes warning of any impending nuclear attack. Some people have said, "Oh my goodness me — four minutes? — that is not a very long time!" Well, I would remind those doubters that some people in this great country of ours can run a mile in four minutes."

"Yes, I could have been a judge but I never had the Latin, never had the Latin for the judging, I just never had sufficient of it to get through the rigorous judging exams."

"I managed to get through the mining exams — they're not very rigorous, they only ask one question, they say, "What is your name?", and I got 50 per cent on that."

"I am very interested in the Universe — I am specialising in the Universe and all that surrounds it."

"The young lady who modelled for Constable was Alice Lauderdale, who was the young lady who came in and did for Constable — practically any woman would do for Constable. She, in any case, used to come in and dust around in the nude, and Constable would get her down on the canvas and immortalise her. As you see, in most of his paintings of Alice he has been forced to disguise her as arable land."