Original sentence: Once asked what his plays are about, Pinter lobbed back a phrase "the weasel under the cocktail cabinet", which he regrets has been taken seriously and applied in popular criticism:  Despite Pinter's protestations to the contrary, many reviewers and other critics consider the "remark", though "facetious", an apt description of his plays; for example: "Asked what his plays were about, Harold Pinter once notoriously quipped, 'the weasel under the cocktail cabinet'.Pinter once joked, 'the weasel under the cocktail cabinet' " (Brantley, "Harold Pinter"; cf.Pinter … is celebrated for what the critic Irving Wardle has called 'the comedy of menace,' or as Mr.…  Although Pinter later repudiated this remark as facetious, it does contain an important clue about his relationship to English dramatic tradition" (Sofer 29); "Mr
Edited sentence: Although Pinter repudiated this remark, it does contain an important clue about his relationship to English dramatic tradition" (Sofer 29); "Mr.Once asked what his plays are about, Pinter lobbed back a phrase "the weasel under the cocktail cabinet", which he regrets has been taken seriously and applied in popular criticism:  Despite Pinter's protestations to the contrary, many reviewers and other critics consider the "remark", though "facetious", an apt description of his plays.Pinter … is celebrated for what the critic Irving Wardle has called 'the comedy of menace' " (Brantley, "Harold Pinter"; cf