"Just what it is that makes a fine artist in the theater is a subject on which probably no final decision will ever be reached, but at least it is now clear that the popular impression of the great actor as a chameleon-like creature who wholly sinks his own individuality in the role that he plays, who nightly reduces himself to putty and then proceeds to construct a new and alien character from its foundations, is an excellent definition of what such an artist is not. Without great personality, great art simply cannot exist, for it is in personality that the highest expression, the ultimate manifestation of life comes. ..."
After a long literary introduction in which th author mentions several great artists Miss Gish is first mentioned on page 11.
"[T]he outstanding serious artist of the screen, the authentic, incomparable interpreter of the dreams of the shadows." p. 11
"She has played only sensitive young women, most of them about the same age, (Ed.note: Up to that time.) many of them facing not wholly dissimilar problems." page 12.
"The girl's work seems 'poetic' because she is a poet, that is because she is a creator." page 13
"She is completely a being of lyric loveliness, even to her very name." page 15
"She is essentially the Puritan in art." Page 18
The author stated Miss Gish would have an "eternal significance." page 20
"[H]er screen images will not be so much characterizations as projections, pictures, embodiments ... (sic) of the varied aspects of the spiritual life." page 24.
"She is not easy to fit with roles that shall be at once adaptable to the scree and suited for her genius; for the mere clash of earthly passion--the quality most frequently and most picturesquely exploited in the theater--is simply not for her." page 25
"What difference does it make what Lillian plays, so long as she is Lillian?" page 26
"Whatever she does she will always be Beauty - emotionalized Beauty, through which one catches sudden, radiant glimpses of the wonder of life." Page 26.
Note: Lillian liked this artistic appraisal of her work and acting style. Lillian Gish: An Interpretation is call to Hollywood, circa the late 1920s, for the type of films, the classics, Miss Gish wanted to star in. She strongly felt the classics, literature and stage, were best suited for silent film and she was convinced her audiences wanted her in these roles. Audiences were more sophisticated before the Depression of 1929. Afterward, audiences wanted escape, singing, dancing, comedy, and actors and actresses with bolder sex appeal. Lillian never bought into that. In the 1960s/70s she crusaded against TV programs that insulted the intelligence of audiences. She had good reason. TV programs got dumb and dumber. In an early episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, Jed Clampett (Buddy Epsen), recalls silent films and his mention of "Lillian Gish" brings the canned laughter. Disgraceful!
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