But if Shakespeare himself is maybe about meaning and truth, I don't know, then he is certainly about pleasure and interest, we start with pleasure and interest, but maybe eventually it gets to meaning and truth. Stephen Greenblatt eventuallyinterestmean share on social
My father who in this case was an obsessive life-long storyteller, and by a very peculiar trick of my father's. My father would tell a very, very long story, and the punch line would be in Yiddish. Stephen Greenblatt casefatherlife Change image and share on social
What I wanted to do was to get that sense of being in touch with this lost world while holding onto what draws readers and audiences there in the first place. Stephen Greenblatt audiencedrawhold Change image and share on social
I wanted to hold onto and exploit the power of narrative. This is not only a book about a great storyteller, but there have to be stories about the storyteller. Stephen Greenblatt bookexploitgreat Change image and share on social
First of all, there was a volcano of words, an eruption of words that Shakespeare had never used before that had never been used in the English language before. It's astonishing. It pours out of him. Stephen Greenblatt astonishenglisheruption Change image and share on social
I believe that nothing comes of nothing, even in Shakespeare. I wanted to know where he got the matter he was working with and what he did with that matter. Stephen Greenblatt mattershakespearewant Change image and share on social
I'm not spitting in my own soup, I love having spent my life thinking about these things-but you don't have to know anything about his life, even though I've just written a biography! Stephen Greenblatt biographyhavelife Change image and share on social
I believe in broken, fractured, complicated narratives, but I believe in narratives as a vehicle for truth, not simply as a form of entertainment, though I love entertainment, but also a way of conveying what needs to be conveyed about the works that I care about. Stephen Greenblatt breakcarecomplicate share on social
Well it is certainly the case that the poems - which were in fact published during Shakespeare's lifetime - are weird if they began or originated in this form, as I think they did, because the poems get out of control. Stephen Greenblatt begincasecontrol share on social
I believe that it is a whole lifetime of work on Shakespeare's part that enabled him to do what he did. But the question is how you can explain this whole lifetime in such a way to make it accessible and available to us, to me. Stephen Greenblatt accessibleenableexplain share on social
