TLS February 22 2008

from Sarah Churchwell's review of Julie Kavanagh's Rudolf Nureyev: The biography:

. . . Carlyle's much-disputed definition of genius as "the transcendental capacity for taking pains, first of all", . . .

***

from John Peter's review of performances of Harold Pinter's "The Lover", "The Collection", and "The Homecoming":

Most of Pinter's characters have two personalities but do not know this, deny it, or observe it with hostility, or fear, or both. But your personality is not your character, not your identity. Personality is what reveals your character, recommends it, covers it up or gives it away. It can suggest that you have no definable character, no central self, no concrete identity.

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