The Oscar Wilde/Neil Simon Connection: who knew?

While watching Anthony Asquith's film version of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest the other night, I noticed that two of his main female characters, Cecily and Gwendolyn, share the same first names as the Pigeon sisters in Neil Simon's comedy, The Odd Couple. And of course how truly witty and ahead of his time Wilde was! Some sample dialogue:

• "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on a train."


• "When I am in really great trouble, as anyone who knows me intimately will tell you, I refuse everything except food and drink."


• "When one is in town one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people."


• "It is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldn't. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldn't read."


• "To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose both looks like carelessness."


• "The good ended happily, and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means."