Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations, compiled by James B. Simpson. 1988.
NUMBER:
8963
AUTHOR:
Laurence Olivier
QUOTATION:
The office of drama is to exercise, possibly to exhaust, human emotions. The purpose of comedy is to tickle those emotions into an expression of light relief; of tragedy, to wound them and bring the relief of tears. Disgust and terror are the other points of the compass.
ATTRIBUTION:
Confessions of an Actor Simon & Schuster 82
SUBJECTS:
Communications & the Arts: Theater: Actors & Actresses
