John Gielgud: The Fullest Example of Humanity

Interview with John Gielgud

Conducted by James Grissom

Telephone/1991

I think that what you are talking about--have been talking about--with all these people who knew Tennessee, and with Tennessee himself, is the search for what you might call the soul. I've come to believe that the soul is not something that is implanted in us, or bestowed upon us, but what we build from what we've seen, what has been done to us, what we've harvested or what we've culled.

When we say of someone that they lack a soul, or soul itself, I think they fail to be curious; they fail to be kind; they fail to understand the value in looking around and within to see what the world is all about. You'll notice that I am not talking at all about acting or the theatre in this conversation, because I think--well, I know--that the work that is most important, no matter what it is we choose to do, is to become the fullest, kindest, most worthwhile human being we possibly can. All of us are limited--spiritually, emotionally, physically--in what we can become or achieve, but what we can call fulfillment, and, if we are really reaching, happiness, arrives, fleetingly, when we are in the act of becoming the fullest example of humanity.

Kind. Patient. Curious. Giving. Quiet more than loud.

© 2021  James Grissom