Stars wide of belt often cultivated a gentlemanly grandeur, a groomed refinement that filtered through their fingertips – the dainty fidgets of Hardy’s plump digits, Orson Welles performing magic tricks with nimble dexterity, Jackie Gleason lofting a teacup to his lips as if he were Lady Bracknell – or through a fine set of twinkle-toes. James Wolcott Read Quote
High expectations weren’t nurtured in my neck of nowhere back then – children weren’t fawned over from an early age as ‘gifted’ and groomed for a prizewinning future; self-esteem was considered something you had to pick from the garden yourself. James Wolcott Read Quote
If Broadway no longer seems behind the times or ahead of the times, it may be because there are no ‘times’ anymore, no prevailing Zeitgeist that sets the fashion, pace, and prevailing look. James Wolcott Read Quote
Hairspray’ was a movie turned Broadway musical turned Hollywood remake, and that is the ‘Lion King’ circle of life as we know it in Times Square, the creative loop that swings for the stars and sometimes crashes into the upper deck. James Wolcott Read Quote
I understand that one of the purposes of bipartisanship is to cram something difficult and necessary down the American people’s gullets for which neither party has the fortitude to assume full responsibility. It’s a way of turning a possible gangplank into a teeter-totter. James Wolcott Read Quote
It was with 9/11 that I came to fully appreciate and embrace NPR’s irreplaceability as a sanity preserver, its unique virtues as first responder on the burning scene. James Wolcott Read Quote
It isn’t that NPR is matriarchal but that it has dedicated itself to not being patriarchal in its outlook and presentation, stipulating from the outset that its headline voices would not resound across the fruited plains from big male bags of air sent from Mount Olympus. James Wolcott Read Quote
After a decade this glum, we deserved a shot of ‘Glee,’ a show that restored our faith in the power of song, the beauty of dance, and the magic of ‘spirit fingers’ to chase our cares and woes into somebody else’s backyard. James Wolcott Read Quote
People want to be special. I think ambition can take in a whole package of things, power or sexual excitement. James Wolcott Read Quote
The whole ecosystem of celebrity has broken down for writers. If you go back to the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s, writers were on TV a lot, and they were allowed to misbehave a lot. James Wolcott Read Quote
