Spare me the whispering, crowded room, the friends who come and gape and go, the ceremonious air of gloom - all, which makes death a hideous show.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It is a mistake to fancy that horror is associated inextricably with darkness, silence, and solitude.
As a boy I used to go to the Chamber of Horrors at the annual fair, to look at the wax figures of Emperors and Kings, of heroes and murderers of the day. The dead now had that same unreality, which shocks without arousing pity.
Absolute silence leads to sadness. It is the image of death.
Death's not one of those things that frighten the life out of me. Getting up on stage with the curtain going up frightens me more.
All round the room my silent servants wait, My friends in every season, bright and dim.
The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.
Characters die all the time. At times, they die amongst a reader's tears, and at others, amongst the applause, and some, still, in quiet satisfaction.
Death is a delightful hiding place for weary men.
It's a brooding melancholy that haunts me.
When I die, it's going to read, 'Game Show Fixture Passes Away.' Nothing about the theater, or Tony Awards, or Emmys. But it doesn't bother me.