Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams IIIwas an American playwright and author of many stage classics. Along with Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller he is considered among the three foremost playwrights in 20th-century American drama...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth26 March 1911
CountryUnited States of America
hate believe taken
I don't believe in "original sin." I don't believe in "guilt." I don't believe in villains or heroes - only right or wrong ways that individuals have taken, not by choice but by necessity or by certain still-uncomprehended influences in themselves, their circumstances, and their antecedents. This is so simple I'm ashamed to say it, but I'm sure it's true. In fact, I would bet my life on it! And that's why I don't understand why our propaganda machines are always trying to teach us, to persuade us, to hate and fear other people on the same little world that we live in.
believe writing play
I believe the way to write a good play is to convince yourself it is easy to do, then go ahead and do it with ease.
grieving blood want
These are the intensities that one cannot live with, that he has to outgrow if he wants to survive. But who can help grieving for them? If the blood vessels could hold them, how much better to keep those early loves with us?
jobs doors office
The theatre is a place where one has time for the problems of people to whom one would show the door if they came to one's office for a job.
nice ocean doctors
The rest of my days I'm going to spend on the sea. And when I die, I'm going to die on the sea. You know what I shall die of? I shall die of eating an unwashed grape. One day out on the ocean I will die--with my hand in the hand of some nice looking ship's doctor, a very young one with a small blond moustache and a big silver watch. "Poor lady," they'll say, "The quinine did her no good. That unwashed grape has transported her soul to heaven.
baby wine two
You see, baby, after a glass or two of wine I’m inclined to extravagance.
magic fleeting eternity
Snatching the eternal out of the desperately fleeting is the great magic trick of human existence.
heart writing loss
William Saroyan wrote a great play on this theme, that purity of heart is the one success worth having. "In the time of your life--live!" That time is short and it doesn't return again. It is slipping away while I write this and while you read it, and the monosyllable of the clock is Loss, loss, loss, unless you devote your heart to its opposition.
time distance two
For time is the longest distance between two places.
ruins matter no-matter-what
Something in me will save me from utter ruin no matter what comes.
life inspiring memories
Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going.
reality artist doe
It is only in his work that an artist can find reality and satisfaction, for the actual world is less intense than the world of his invention and consequently his life, without recourse to violent disorder, does not seem very substantial. The right condition for him is that in which his work in not only convenient but unavoidable.
writing trying theatre
It's hard enough for me to write what I want to write without me trying to write what you say they want me to write which I don't want to write.
life-lesson believe memorial
Life is an unanswered question, but let's still believe in the dignity and importance of the question.