Quotes of the Week

From around the theatre net:

• "Hasa Diga Convention!" One of seven things The Book of Mormon (the show, not the scripture) can teach producers, from Ken Davenport's blog.
  
• "Are we [critics] too gentle?...Or is Los Angeles simply one of the finest venues in the English speaking world for live theater?" From an admirably self-critical post on the Bitter Lemons site.
  
• "We now pay strangers to tell us stories about strangers. But when do we use the symbolic language of theatre, dance, etc., to tell our own stories about our collective selves?" A bracing David Diamond excerpt on Scott Walter's blog.
  
• "Allow the love of the good ghost," my favorite line from a shattering Pinter quote on George Hunka's site.
  
• I liked this defensive but incisive quote from Sarah Ruhl, in Lahr's Stage Kiss rave: "Lightness is not stupidity. It's actually a philosophical and aesthetic viewpoint, deeply serious, and has a kind of wisdom—stepping back to be able to laugh at the horrible things even as you're experiencing them."