Jerome Lawrence Quotes

• It's always such a joy that you wake up in the morning and there's work to do.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Good Morning, Good Day, Joy

  47 Copy quote

• A neurotic is a man who builds a castle in the air. A psychotic is the man who lives in it. A psychiatrist is the man who collects the rent.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Science, Men, Air

  88 Copy quote

• The man who has everything figured out is probably a fool.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Men, Fool, He Man

  Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. Lee (2016). “Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century”, p.55, Ballantine Books

  12 Copy quote

• All motion is relative. Maybe it's you who've moved away by standing still.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Inherit The Wind, Standing Still, Stills

  8 Copy quote

• When you lose the power to laugh, you lose your power to think straight.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Laughter, Humor, Thinking

  8 Copy quote

• Darwin was Wrong! Man's still an ape.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Men, Apes, Inherit The Wind

  "Fictional character: E. K. Hornbeck". "Inherit the Wind", www.imdb.com. 1960.

  9 Copy quote

• I say that you cannot administer a wicked law impartially. You can only destroy. You can only punish. I warn you that a wicked law, like cholera, destroys everyone it touches - its upholders as well as its defiers.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Law, Wicked, Prison

  8 Copy quote

• Progress has never been a bargain. You have to pay for it. Sometimes I think there's a man who sits behind a counter and says, "All right, you can have a telephone but you lose privacy and the charm of distance. Madam, you may vote but at a price. You lose the right to retreat behind the powder puff or your petticoat. Mister, you may conquer the air but the birds will lose their wonder and the clouds will smell of gasoline."

  Jerome Lawrence

  Distance, Character, Men

  "Fictional character: Henry Drummond". "Inherit the Wind", www.imdb.com. 1960.

  10 Copy quote

• Don't have any opinions. They're bad for business.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Opinion

  Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. Lee (2016). “Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century”, p.17, Ballantine Books

  4 Copy quote

• The whole point of writing is to have something in your gut or in your soul or in your mind that's burning to be written.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Writing, Soul, Mind

  8 Copy quote

• Is it possible to be overzealous, to destroy that which you hope to save-so that nothing is left but emptiness.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Emptiness, Inherit The Wind, Overzealous

  Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. Lee (2016). “Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century”, p.67, Ballantine Books

  12 Copy quote

• The aftermath of the war is what inspired us to write many of our plays. The whole reason for our writing Inherit the Wind was that we were appalled at the blacklisting. We were appalled at thought control.

  Jerome Lawrence

  War, Writing, Wind

  8 Copy quote

• An idea is a greater monument than a cathedral. And the advance of man's knowledge is more of a miracle than any sticks turned to snakes, or the parting of waters!

  Jerome Lawrence

  Men, Snakes, Ideas

  "Inherit the Wind". Play by Jerome Lawrence, 1955.

  8 Copy quote

• You must not demand the failure of your peers, because the more good things that are around in film, in television, in theater - why the better it is for all of us.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Peers, Television, Demand

  8 Copy quote

• Cynical? Thats my fascination. I do hateful things, for which people love me, And lovable things for which they hate me. I am a friend of enemies, the enemy of friends; I am admired for my detestability. I am both Poles and the Equator, with no Temperate Zones between.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Hate, People, Cynical

  Jerome Lawrence, Robert E. Lee (2016). “Inherit the Wind: The Powerful Courtroom Drama in which Two Men Wage the Legal War of the Century”, p.33, Ballantine Books

  6 Copy quote

• I think enthusiasm is the answer to passionate writing.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Writing, Thinking, Passionate

  7 Copy quote

• In no instance is there to be a musical or opera of Inherit the Wind because it doesn't sing. It's an intellectual play.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Wind, Play, Intellectual

  7 Copy quote

• Thou shalt not steal the shekels of thine audience with a play which doth not let them know what the hell goeth on.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Play, Hell, Stealing

  5 Copy quote

• All experience helps when you write.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Writing, Helping

  5 Copy quote

• Our only competition in the theater is boredom, because if I'm bored with a play, if I'm revolted by a play on stage, with the Broadway prices, especially today, I'm going to walk out and not come back and pay that price again.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Blessing, Play, Boredom

  4 Copy quote

• If you're going to make a musical, don't cartoon it from the play. Make it better than the play. Have a reason for making it sing.

  Jerome Lawrence

  Play, Musical, Cartoon

  7 Copy quote

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