Peter Shaffer
Peter Shaffer
Sir Peter Levin Shaffer, CBEwas an English playwright and screenwriter of numerous award-winning plays, several of which have been turned into films...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth15 May 1926
children eye normal
The Normal is the good smile in a child’s eyes - all right. It is also the dead stare in a million adults.
beautiful children eye
The Normal is the good smile in a child's eyes- all right. It is also the dead stare in a million adults. It both sustains and kills- like a God. It is the Ordinary made beautiful; it is also the Average made leathal. The Normal is the indispensable, murderous God of Health...
couple stupid eye
Watching Italian opera, all those male sopranos screeching, stupid fat couples rolling their eyes about. That's not love, it's just rubbish.
eye heart grieving
What the eye does not see, the heart does not grieve over, does it?
acts original public remarkable seen york
I've seen the most remarkable thing. It's in the New York Public Library. They've got the original typescript of 'The Importance of Being Earnest' - all four acts of it.
brought discussion faith gently jewish orthodox
I was brought up in an Orthodox Jewish household. I don't think I ever had a single discussion with my parents about faith. It was just something gently imposed.
leading music possibly
I think possibly the first film that has music as its leading character.
But the first published thing I did was a detective story, detective novel, and I did that on my own.
believe form valuable
I really believe that studying organization, even in the form of studying detective story organization, is very, very valuable for a playwright, a budding playwright.
both discover exciting verbal
I discover what I mean as I write. That can be both terrifically exciting and very dangerous, because when you look at your words later, you wonder, 'Did I really mean that, or am I just making verbal patterns?'
audiences extent films
Our function as playwrights to some extent is to make audiences see with their ears, because films make us see with our eyes much better.
music rhetoric verbal
The rhetoric is the key to the character. It's the verbal music of the piece.
caused sensation
In London, 'Equus' caused a sensation because it displayed cruelty to horses; in New York, because it allegedly displayed cruelty to psychiatrists.
began danger england great invasion poland september state thereafter time war
We... our war began September the 3rd 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany, and thereafter the great state of danger in England at that time, with the bombings, necessitated the evacuation of children.