"We are our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves."
— Tom Robbins

"'Divers alarums and excursions', she read, uncertainly. 'That means lots of terrible happenings, said Magrat. 'You always put that in plays.'
'Alarums and what?', said Nanny Ogg, who hadn't been listening.
'Excursions', said Magrat patienly.
'Oh.' Nanny Ogg brightened a bit. 'The seaside would be nice,' she said.
'Oh do shut up, Gytha,' said Granny Weatherwax. 'They're not for you. They're only for divers, like it says. Probably so they can recover from all them alarums.'"
— Terry Pratchett (Wyrd Sisters)

"God kills indiscrinatly (i think i spelled that wrong) and so shall we."
— Anne Rice

"Poetry, plays, novels, music, they are the cry of the human spirit trying to understand itself and make sense of our world."
— Laura Malone Elliott (Annie, Between the States)

"We can see the film stars of yesterday in yesterday’s films, hear the voices of poest and singers on a record, keep the plays of dead dramatists upon our bookshelves, but the actor who holds his audience captive for one brief moment upon a lighted stage vanishes forever when the curtain falls. "
— Daphne du Maurier (The "Rebecca" Notebook: And Other Memories)

"Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door."
— Tennessee Williams (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)

"The quality of a play is the quality of its ideas."
— George Bernard Shaw

"A Chinaman of the T'ang Dynasty - and, by which definition, a philosopher - dreamed he was a butterfly, and from that moment he was never quite sure that he was not a butterfly dreaming it was a Chinese philosopher."
— Tom Stoppard

"Lesly: I don't think you're insane.

 Jackie-O: You don't?

 Lesly: No.

 Jackie-O: You don't think I'm an eensie weensie bit insane?

 Lesly: I don't think you're insane. I think you're just spoiled.

 Jackie-O: Oh please, if everyone around here is going to start telling the truth, I'm going to bed. "
— Wendy Macleod (The House of Yes)

"I, on the other hand, interrupt people because my thoughts fly out of my mouth. My handbag's full of rubbish. And I want to do something that matters with my life. Right now I'd like to write plays, sing in musicals, and/or rid the world of poverty, violence, cruelty, and right-wing conservative politics."
— Alison Larkin (The English American: A Novel)