God I wish I'd thought of that

Playwrights save the best lines for themselves: (Note: I had to type "playwright" 4 times before I was convinced I had spelled it correctly. Seriously, shouldn't it be spelled "playwrite?" You know, the person who writes the play? Anyway.) From Richard Greenberg, author of Three Days of Rain, which has made approximately a bazillion dollars now that Julia Roberts is starring in it on Broadway, quoted in NY Times Magazine, 3/26/2006:

"Be civil. Do not cherish your opinion over my feelings. There's a vanity to candor that isn't really worth it."

Amen. Honestly, is civility so hard? When did we decide as a collective body that it was better to be brutally honest than moderately kind? I really wish that I had had this elegant turn of phrase at the ready when faced with the admits who would not go away. It would have been much more effective than my incredulous sputtering. (This comes to me through Mrs. Kennedy, since, in a move of remarkable frugality, John and I have stopped taking the Times. Sigh.)