Greek Tragedy Quotes

• It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.

  Henry A. Kissinger

  History, Greek, Tragedy

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• I've come to realize that life is not a musical comedy, it's a Greek tragedy.

  Billy Joel

  Greek, Musical, Tragedy

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• Laughter on American television has taken the place of the chorus in Greek tragedy. In other countries, the business of laughing is left to the viewers. Here, their laughter is put on the screen, integrated into the show. It is the screen that is laughing and having a good time. You are simply left alone with your consternation.

  Jean Baudrillard

  Country, Laughter, Taken

  Jean Baudrillard (1989). “America”, p.49, Verso

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• The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.

  Plato

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

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• In Greek tragedy, they fall from great heights. In noir, they fall from the curb.

  Dennis Lehane

  Fall, Greek, Tragedy

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• Conflict is the basis of drama. I guess that goes back as long as time has existed as far as mankind is concerned, dating back to the Greek tragedies or the Old Testament. And violence is a form of conflict, so whether that's catharsis or whether that has some socially damaging effect on audiences - I suppose that would just depend.

  Clint Eastwood

  Drama, Dating, Long

  Source: www.psychologytoday.com

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• I often teach a graduate theater seminar on Greek tragedy in performance. I usually begin by saying that no matter what technological advances occur, the wisdom of these plays will never be obsolete.

  Neil Patrick Harris

  Play, Greek, Tragedy

  "Tonys 2013 Q&A: 'Neil Patrick Harris is the god of awards show'". Interview with Charles McNulty, articles.latimes.com. June 10, 2013.

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• As Agatha Swanburne once said, 'To be kept waiting is unfortunate, but to be kept waiting with nothing interesting to read is a tragedy of Greek proportions.

  Maryrose Wood

  Interesting, Waiting, Greek

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• I perform regularly with a theater company called Outside the Wire who take performances of Greek tragedy to American-military audiences around the world to create discussion about PTSD and soldier suicide. It's one of the greatest things I've ever been asked to do as an actor.

  Bryce Pinkham

  Suicide, Greek, Soldier

  Source: mercystreet.lunchbox.pbs.org

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• The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.

  W. Somerset Maugham

  Love, Life, Change

  W. Somerset Maugham (1954). “Mr. Maugham Himself”

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• The Greek tragedies and comedies are like a roadmap to all the ways in which trying to live this rich, full life can go wrong. You could get into a war. You could find that you have members of your family on the wrong side of a political crisis. You could be raped. You could find that your child has gone crazy because of some horrible experience she's had.

  Martha C. Nussbaum

  Children, Crazy, War

  Source: www.neh.gov

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• Frequently my life has been likened to a Greek tragedy, and the actress in me cannot deny that comparison.

  Patricia Neal

  Greek, Tragedy, Actresses

  Patricia Neal, Richard DeNeut (1988). “As I am: an autobiography”, Simon & Schuster

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• Ever since the Greek tragedies, artists have, from time to time, asked themselves how they might influence ongoing political events.

  John Berger

  Artist, Political, Greek

  "The beginning of history" by John Berger, www.theguardian.com. August 24, 2004.

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• I'm intrigued by the classic Greek tragedies, as well as by the idea of the Greek chorus.

  Joseph Boyden

  Ideas, Greek, Tragedy

  Source: therumpus.net

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• Sometimes bad luck hits you like in an ancient Greek tragedy, and it's not your own making. When you have a plane crash, it's not your fault.

  Werner Herzog

  Greek, Luck, Tragedy

  "Courting Disaster: Werner Herzog". Interview with Darrell Hartman, www.interviewmagazine.com. October 28, 2009.

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• Those around you can have their novellas, sweet, their short stories of cliché and coincidence, occasionally spiced up with tricks of the quirky, the achingly mundane, the grotesque. A few will even cook up Greek tragedy, those born into misery, destined to die in misery. But you, my bride of quietness, you will craft nothing less than epic with your life. Out of all of them, your story will be the one to last.

  Marisha Pessl

  Sweet, Epic, Greek

  Marisha Pessl (2006). “Special Topics in Calamity Physics”, p.84, Penguin

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• What we were trying to do was take the notion of Greek tragedy, of fated and doomed people, and instead of these Olympian gods, indifferent, venal, selfish, hurling lightning bolts and hitting people in the ass for no reason — instead of those guys whipping it on Oedipus or Achilles, it’s the postmodern institutions . . . those are the indifferent gods.

  David Simon

  Selfish, Oedipus, People

  "Stealing Life" by Margaret Talbot, www.newyorker.com. October 22, 2007.

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• Laughter on American television has taken the place of the chorus in Greek tragedy. It is unrelenting; the news, the stock-exchange reports, and the weather forecast are about the only things spared.

  Jean Baudrillard

  Laughter, Taken, Weather

  Jean Baudrillard (1989). “America”, p.49, Verso

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• I always think a good sports movie is emblematic in the same way that a great Greek tragedy really has a certain kind of structure, or a Shakespearean play if you're looking at a comedy or a tragedy, is that these are the heights and depths of human emotion.

  Carla Gugino

  Sports, Thinking, Play

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• I'm drawn to a lot of tragedies, and I love a Greek tragedy.But I would think - I start thinking realistically about it, and performing eight days a week, that would take a toll. I take things to heart. I don't know if I could survive, like, "Medea."

  Eva Mendes

  Heart, Thinking, Eight

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• My first job was a Greek tragedy, and ever since, one job just seemed to roll onto the next. I've been terribly lucky.

  Hayley Atwell

  Jobs, Greek, Tragedy

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I think American drama is at its best when it takes the domestic and makes it epic, like a Greek tragedy in the front room.

  Anne-Marie Duff

  Drama, Thinking, Epic

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• The ‘I’ character in journalism is almost pure invention. Unlike the ‘I’ of autobiography, who is meant to be seen as a representation of the writer, the ‘I’ of journalism is connected to the writer only in a tenuous way—the way, say, that Superman is connected to Clark Kent. The journalistic ‘I’ is an overreliable narrator, a functionary to whom crucial tasks of narration and argument and tone have been entrusted, an ad hoc creation, like the chorus of Greek tragedy. He is an emblematic figure, an embodiment of the idea of the dispassionate observer of life.

  Janet Malcolm

  Character, Ideas, Greek

  "The Journalist and the Murderer". Book by Janet Malcolm, March 20, 1989.

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• Greek philosophy seems to have met with something with which a good tragedy is not supposed to meet, namely, a dull ending.

  Karl Marx

  Philosophy, Greek, Tragedy

  Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels (1975). “Karl Marx, Frederick Engels: Collected Works”, London : Lawrence & Wishart

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• I don't write fantasy, I write reality. Also, my novels have roots to Greek tragedies and as such, there has to be tragedy.

  Nicholas Sparks

  Writing, Reality, Roots

  Interview with Jennifer Levitsky, www.bookreporter.com. April 28, 1998.

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