Harold Pinter

In Beckett, a strong influence on Mr Pinter in his beginnings, ordinary conversations would turn metaphysical. His own were packed with menace. Words were offensive, defensive, barriers, knives, stones, a “stratagem” or a “mocking smoke screen”, as he put it, to cover nakedness. Underneath them, something else was being said. Truth was being smothered. --The Economist, Harold Pinter, playwright and polemicist, died on December 24th, aged 78: Obituary, December 30, 2008


They [his plays] were credited for creating a new brand of theatrical silence and pause with which his work became synonymous. Later, this device would become known as "Pinteresque" and be adopted by devotees of his work. --Arifa Akbar, Exit stage left: Harold Pinter dies: Harold Pinter, playwright, actor and political activist, dies aged 78, The Independent, December 26, 2008 (via Drudge Report)