Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
A play's value depends on the strength of its concepts rather than spectacle.
In plain terms
Good ideas make a good play.
What can you take from it?
Focus on substance over style in writing.

Where it applies

  • playwriting
  • theater criticism
  • creative work

Putting it to work

  • outline themes before drafting
  • revise for clarity

Questions to consider

  • What makes an idea worth staging?
  • How do you judge a play's core?

Another view

Spectacle and performance can also define a play's success.

More from George Bernard Shaw

  1. You in America should trust to that volcanic political instinct which I have divined in you.

    Permalink to quote #33
  2. It's well to be off with the Old Woman before you're on with the New.

    Permalink to quote #35
  3. An American has no sense of privacy. He does not know what it means. There is no such thing in the country.

    Permalink to quote #32

Related quotes

  1. I'd rather write one good book than ten mediocre ones.

    Donna TarttDonna Tartt quote #17
  2. When a sonnet is mediocre it is bad, for it should be sublime.

    Giacomo CasanovaGiacomo Casanova quote #35
  3. A great piece of music is beautiful regardless of how it is performed. Any prelude or fugue of Bach can be played at any tempo, with or without rhythmic nuance…

    Dmitri ShostakovichDmitri Shostakovich quote #5