People: Oct. 24, 2005

PINTER'S PROGRESS

Having written plays with cheery names like The Birthday Party and The Lover that are in fact the opposite of cheery, HAROLD PINTER, 75, could be thought of as a bit of a downer. But there was nothing grim about his reaction to the news that he had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. The playwright told reporters he was "bowled over" by the $1.3 million award. He didn't mean it literally; the wound on his head came from a recent fall. Here's hoping we'll finally get a Pinteresque award-acceptance speech. Nothing says elation like tense silence and nameless...

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