Brooks Atkinson
Brooks Atkinson
Justin Brooks Atkinsonwas an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960. In his obituary, the Times called him "the theater's most influential reviewer of his time."...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth28 November 1894
CityMelrose, MA
CountryUnited States of America
nature self bird
Although birds coexist with us on this eroded planet, they live independently of us with a self-sufficiency that is almost a rebuke. In the world of birds a symposium on the purpose of life would be inconceivable. They do not need it. We are not that self-reliant. We are the ones who have lost our way.
differences people plot
We tolerate differences of opinion in people who are familiar to us. But differences of opinion in people we do not know sound like heresy or plots.
lonely writing men
Nothing a man writes can please him as profoundly as something he does with his back, shoulders and hands. For writing is an artificial activity. It is a lonely and private substitute for conversation.
play joy towns
There is no joy so great as that of reporting that a good play has come to town.
new-york rain assuming
New Yorkers are inclined to assume it will never rain, and certainly not on New Yorkers.
guilt daily-life shame
Everyone in daily life carries such a heavy mixed burden on his own conscience that he is reluctant to penalize those who have been caught.
judging facts life-is
Life is seldom as unendurable as, to judge by the facts, it logically ought to be.
art real illumination
Real art is illumination, it adds stature to life.
photography artist giving
The virtue of the camera is not the power it has to transform the photographer into an artist, but the impulse it gives him to keep on looking.
work trying half
Don't be condescending to unskilled labor. Try it for a half a day first.
justice long church
I have no objections to churches so long as they do not interfere with God's work.
men criticism down-and
There should be a dash of the amateur in criticism. For the amateur is a man of enthusiasm who has not settled down and is not habit bound.
life men evil
The evil that men do lives on the front pages of greedy newspapers, but the good is oft interred apathetically inside.
people theatre sides
Although the theater is not life, it is composed of fragments or imitations of life, and people on both sides of the footlight have to unite to make the fragments whole and the imitations genuine.