And this is a table ma'am. What in essence it consists of is a horizontal rectilinear plane surface … - Michael Frayn

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Though environmental orthodoxy holds that Third World deforestation is caused by rapacious clear-cutters and ruthless cattle barons, penniless peasants seeking fuel wood may be the greatest threat to our forests.

Michael Frayn

And this is a table ma'am. What in essence it consists of is a horizontal rectilinear plane surface maintained by four vertical columnar supports, which we call legs. The tables in this laboratory, ma'am, are as advanced in design as one will find anywhere in the world.

Humorous, Essence, Design, Plane, Surface, Supports

Same Author Quotes

Even in the things that look most frivolous there has to be the threat of something quite painful to make the comedy work. I suppose the play of mine that's best know is NOISES OFF, which everyone thinks is a simple farce about actors making fools of themselves. But I think it makes people laugh because everyone is terrified inside themselves of having some kind of breakdown, of being unable to go on. When people laugh at that play, they're laughing at a surrogate version of the disaster which might occur to them.

Laughing, Make, Play, Quite, Simple, Thinking

I can understand, he said, that many people, many perfectly ordinary people, have an interesting story to tell. No one's experience of life is valueless.

Interesting, Ordinary, People, Story, Tell, Valueless

You can create a good impression on yourself by being right. . . but for creating a good impression on others there's nothing to beat being totally and catastrophically wrong.

Beats, Creating, Good, Wrong, Wrong Impression

Look at your hand. Its structure does not match the structure of assertions, the structure of facts. Your hand is continuous. Assertions and facts are discontinuous. . . . You lift your index finger half an inch; it passes through a million facts. Look at the way your hand goes on and on, while the clock ticks, and the sun moves a little further across the sky.

Clock, Discontinuous, Hands, Moving, Sky

A toy car is a projection of a real car, made small enough for a child's hand and imagination to grasp. A real car is a projection of a toy car, made large enough for an adult's hand and imagination to grasp.

Children, Hand, Hands, Imagination, Real, Small