Specialist hedgehog or wide-ranging fox? In an extract from his new book, the late playwright Stephen Jeffreys identifies two kinds of thinkers - and one writer who defies definition Just as people outside the theatre ask actors, `How do you remember the words?` so do they enquire of writers, `Where do your ideas come from?` In both cases, the truthful answer is: `Thatīs the easy part.` For a professional playwright, having ideas for plays is something that happens on a daily basis. Reading a newspaper, listening to a friendīs holiday anecdotes, glimpsing a curious image of, say, two people and a bag of firewood - anything can set you off. But as Robert McKee says, `Having an idea is like whistling a tune on the steps of Carnegie Hall. The hard part is getting the orchestra to play it inside.`Isaiah Berlin, quoting the ancient Greek poet Archilochus, suggests that there are two kinds of writers and thinkers: foxes and hedgehogs. While the fox knows many things and forages across a range of experiences, the hedgehog concentrates its attention on knowing one big thing. Continue reading...
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