John Banville Quotes

Tragedy is the oldest form of theatre.

The Greeks said very, very extreme things in their tragedies.

Tragedy is a literary concept.

Sophocles was a general: a warrior writing plays about military situations.

Tragedy is the highest form of art.

Every time one can write a self-deluded song, you are way ahead of the game, way ahead. Self-delusion is the basis of nearly all the great scenes in all the great plays, from 'Oedipus' to 'Hamlet.'

The subject of a good tragedy must not be realistic.

Avoiding humiliation is the core of tragedy and comedy.

But our comedies never endured long without a tragedy.

I try to find humor in everything I do, because I think all great plays - even great tragedies - have enormous humor in them.

Someday I'd love to do Shakespeare.

Comedy and drama are both challenging to me.

People think comedians don't do drama. Comics are drama. And what is drama, as opposed to comedy? It's all the same to me.

I think the opera is one of the great cultural jewels of Los Angeles.

I remember thinking, when I was playing Hedda Gabler, that several sequences of the play were utterly absurd.

The tragic element of a character is always intriguing I think.

I consider tragedy the highest form of art.

Theater people say you are either a comedian or a tragedian, and I'm a tragedian. And the vexing, dark characters, the ones where I don't understand their pain or their anguish, they are the characters that appeal to me.

Greek tragedy was pre-Freudian, so every emotion has to be so raw; there are no psychological undertones.

If I'm going to go to the opera, I want to see the costumes and the melodrama.

I'm a tragedienne in some way. I think quite epically. I like epic landscapes and grand emotions.

Whenever I'd seen Greek tragedy done with masks and declamations, it brought me out in a rash.

I loved working in Pittsburgh - the theater there is amazing, so many different types of theater.

I am a big fan of musical theater.

Frequently my life has been likened to a Greek tragedy, and the actress in me cannot deny that comparison.