“Waiting for Godot frankly jettisons everything by which we recognise theatre. It arrives at the custom-house, as it were, with no luggage, no passport, and nothing to declare; yet it gets through, as might a pilgrim from Mars. It does this, I believe, by appealing to a definition of drama much more fundamental than any in the books. A play, it asserts and proves, is basically a means of spending two hours in the dark without being bored.”—Kenneth Tynan, review of Waiting for Godot, 1955
“Remark by Virginia Blond during weekend with the Harlechs: ‘Do you know that if you spray your gateposts with soda-water, moss will grow on them?’ (A) How was this piece of information acquired? (i.e., who was spraying his estate with soda-water, and why?) (B) Why should one want moss on one’s gateposts?
“I never return from an English country weekend without some such peerless nugget of trivia.”—Tynan, January 1, 1973, from The Diaries of Kenneth Tynan