Quote of the Day- Jose Saramago

Today, we conclude our quotes from famous figures associated with each of the 16 countries represented in the Euro Cup 2012 with a quip from the Portuguese novelist Jose Saramgo (1922-2010).

Portugal advanced to the quarterfinals today with a 2-1 win over Denmark; they will join Germany who defeated the Netherlands 2-1 in advancing from the dreaded group of death.

Saramago was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature, which in recent years has gone to Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk and the late British playwright Harold Pinter.

The Portuguese writer was a communist politically which forced him to live a portion of his life in exile in the Canary Islands, joining the likes of the late Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, who lived in Russia, and the late American novelist William Burroughs, who lived in Morocco (but lived the later years of his life in Lawrence, Kansas)  as writers who lived in exile for either political or personal reasons.

Saramago's most famous novels include "Baltasar and Blimunda" (1982), "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ" (1991), which was very controversial, and "Blindness" (1997).

Here is his quote:

"As citizens, we all have an obligation to intervene and become involved_ it's the citizen who changes things."

Quote of the Week- Harold Pinter

In conjunction with my quote from David Mamet on "The Daily Vampire," I am posting a quip from another controversial playwright, the recently deceased Harold Pinter.

Unlike Mamet, Pinter was no conservative and he was very vocal to the Iraq War which he saw as an act of imperialism.

Studio Theatre in Washington, DC, just finsihed a run of Pinter's play "Moonlight" (pictured here), but the stage company will open with "The Solid Gold Cadillac" on Dec. 2.

'Cadillac,'a comedy play was first staged in 1953 and it was written by George S. Kaufman and Howard Teichman. The Studio Theatre production will be directed by Paul Mullins.

Triad Stage in Greensboro, NC, is currently running a production of Mamet's controversial play "Oleanna" through Nov. 8.

Here is a quip from Pinter's play "Moonlight:"

"I would never use obscene language in the office. Certainly not. I kept my obscene language for the home, the one place where it belongs."