James Agate
James Agate
James Evershed Agatewas a British diarist and critic. In the period between the wars, he was one of Britain's most influential theatre critics. After working in his father's business until his late twenties he found his way into journalism, being on the staff of The Manchester Guardian; drama critic for The Saturday Review, and The Sunday Times, and holding the same post for the BBC...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionCritic
Date of Birth9 September 1877
anybody argue interested
I don't know very much, but what I do know I know better than anybody, and I don't want to argue about it. I know what I think about an actor or an actress, and am not interested in what anybody else thinks.
anybody argue asked bed business course crowd expose finished intelligence-and-intellectuals interested mind minutes refuse statesman talk tired tonight truck william won work
Intelligence: I was asked tonight why I refuse to have truck with intellectuals after business hours. But of course I won t. 1. I am not an intellectual. Two minutes talk with Aldous Huxley, William Glock, or any of the New Statesman crowd would expose me utterly. 2. I am too tired after my day's work to man the intellectual palisade. 3. When my work is finished I want to eat, drink, smoke, and relax. 4. I don't know very much, but what I do know I know better than anybody, and I don't want to argue about it. I know what I think about an actor or an actress, and am not interested in what anybody else thinks. My mind is not a bed to be made and re-made.
player theatre facts
Theatre director: a person engaged by the management to conceal the fact that the players cannot act.
pity
Don't pity me now, don't pity me never; I'm going to do nothing for ever and ever.
reading writing missing
All I want is a modest place in Mr X's Good Reading, Miss Y's Good Writing, and that new edition of One Thousand Best Bits of Recent Prose.
busy ultras theory
Perhaps, after all, there is something in the theory that only the ultra-busy can find time for everything.
money determined force
To force myself to earn more money, I determined to spend more.
long theatre experience
Long experience has taught me that in England nobody goes to the theatre unless he or she has bronchitis.
mind bed made
My mind is not a bed to be made and remade.
failure kind worst
The worst of failure of this kind is that it spoils the market for more competent performers.
mind want bed
I don't know very much but what I do know I know better than anybody, and I don't want to argue about it…My mind is not a bed to be made and re-made.
women years feet
This was an actress who, for twenty years, had the world at her feet. She kicked it away, and the ball rolled out of her reach.
women expression sheep
In her early days she had that beatific expression characteristic of Victorian prettiness - like a sheep painted by Raphael.