Thornton Wilder
Thornton Wilder
Thornton Niven Wilderwas an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes—for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and for the two plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth — and a U.S. National Book Award for the novel The Eighth Day...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth17 April 1897
CityMadison, WI
CountryUnited States of America
stars years play
We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars . . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being. -stage manager, in the play OUR TOWN
death gratitude grief
The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.
travel adventure home
When you're safe at home you wish you were having an adventure; when you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home.
time moving eye
It is only in appearance that time is a river. It is rather a vast landscape and it is the eye of the beholder that moves.
love heartbreak dog
Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.
gratitude grief reality
All that we know about those we have loved and lost is that they would wish us to remember them with a more intensified realization of their reality. What is essential does not die but clarifies. The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude.
night remember equal
There is no drunkenness equal to that of remembering whispered words in the night.
crazy trying want
I want you to try and remember what it was like to have been very young. And particularly the days when you were first in love; when you were like a person sleepwalking, and you didn’t quite see the street you were in, and didn’t quite hear everything that was said to you. You’re just a little bit crazy. Will you remember that, please?
children heart angel
Without your wounds where would your power be? It is your melancholy that makes your low voice tremble into the hearts of men and women. The very angels themselves cannot persuade the wretched and blundering children on earth as can one human being broken on the wheels of living. In Love’s service, only wounded soldiers can serve. Physician, draw back.
writing impress be-good
If you write to impress it will always be bad, but if you write to express it will be good
believe theatre events
A dramatist is one who believes that the pure event, an action involving human beings, is more arresting than any comment that can be made upon it.
marriage children growing-up
I didn't marry you because you were perfect. I didn't even marry you because I loved you. I married you because you gave me a promise. That promise made up for your faults. And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage. And when our children were growing up, it wasn't a house that protected them; and it wasn't our love that protected them--it was that promise.
waiting world stuff
The stuff of which masterpieces are made drifts about the world waiting to be clothed in words.
inspirational hope motivation
Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.