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
life unbroken situation
Life is an unbroken succession of false situations.
life marriage fighting
The best part of married life is the fights. The rest is merely so-so.
giving awkward style
Many great writers have been extraordinarily awkward in daily exchange, but the greatest give the impression that their style was nursed by the closest attention to colloquial speech.
excellence technique sincerity
But such occasions of excellence became less and less frequent. As her technique became sounder, [her] sincerity became less necessary.
stars lying journey
There are the stars--doing their old, old crisscross journeys in the sky. Scholars haven't settled the matter yet, but they seem to think there are no living beings out there. Just chalk... or fire. Only this one is straining away, straining away all the time to make something of itself. Strain's so bad that every sixteen hours everybody lies down and gets a rest.
play actors signatures
Many plays - certainly mine - are like blank checks. The actors and directors put their own signatures on them.
theatre moral action
The theatre is supremely fitted to say: 'Behold! These things are.' Yet most dramatists employ it to say: 'This moral truth can be learned from beholding this action.'
writing winning way
The future author is one who discovers that language, the exploration and manipulation of the resources of language, will serve him in winning through to his way.
doctors looks nonsense
Doctors are mostly impostors. The older a doctor is and the more venerated he is, the more he must pretend to know everything. Of course, they grow worse with time. Always look for a doctor who is hated by the best doctors. Always seek out a bright young doctor before he comes down with nonsense.
beauty evil world
It is very necessary to have markers of beauty left in a world seemingly bent on making the most evil ugliness.
secret acting agents
If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a secret agent.
play actors blank
Characterization in a play is like a blank check which the dramatist accords to the actor for him to fill in.
love islands poetic
I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island.
unique unbroken succession
Every person who has ever lived has lived an unbroken succession of unique occasions.