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
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.
struggle people independence
The cult of nature is a form of patronage by people who have declared their materialistic independence from nature and do not have to struggle with nature every day of their lives.
perspective people ideals
In the ideal sense nothing is uninteresting; there are only uninterested people.
people atheism age
In every age 'the good old days' were a myth. No one ever thought they were good at the time. For every age has consisted of crises that seemed intolerable to the people who lived through them.
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.
new-york rain assuming
New Yorkers are inclined to assume it will never rain, and certainly not on New Yorkers.
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.
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.
hero friendly needs
Walking companions, like heroes, are difficult to pluck out of the crowd of acquaintances. Good dispositions, ready wit, friendly conversation serve well enough by the fireside but they prove insufficient in the field. For there you need transcendentalists-nothing less; you need poets, sages, humorists and natural philosophers.
play america optimism
In the 1920s dramatists attacked their subjects as if the inequities could be resolved. Some of the traditional optimism of America lurked behind most of the early plays. But not now. There is no conviction now that the problem will be solved.
book writing radiance
Writing is not an end in itself but life transmuted into radiance.