Nobel Laureate Dead at 78

British playwright Harold Pinter died on Thursday. The Los Angeles Times offers a splendid piece:

Harold Pinter, the Nobel Prize-winning British playwright who addressed the isolation, fear and brutality of life in an original style that changed the face of 20th century theater, has died. He was 78.

Pinter, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2005, died Wednesday, his wife, Lady Antonia Fraser, told the Associated Press in London. He had been in failing health in recent years, battling cancer of the esophagus as well as pemphigus, a rare autoimmune disease.

The LA Times piece is here. The Chicago Tribune’s Chris Jones waxes appropriately poetic here. The Times Online gets personal here and offer up a mess of great quotes here. My favorite Pinterism from this batch:

“I can sum up none of my plays ... but my writing life has been, quite simply, one of relish, challenge and excitement.”