““Writing a part with the talents of a particular actor in mind is the method most likely to result in ephemeral plays: for, once that actor is dead, it will not be easy to find an identical replacement. This system gives and author without creative talent the advantage of a ready-made model whose muscles he can flex as he chooses. Really, the actor (with a minimum of education) might just as well talk about himself and say whatever he liked. The weakness of this system is most obvious in the tragedies of Racine, which are not really plays, but rosaries of roles. It is not "stars" that are needed, but a homogeneous array of somber masks: docile silhouettes.””