We are all of us born, live and die in the shadow of a giant question mark that refers to three questions: Where do we come from? Why? And where, oh where, are we going!
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSWe are all of us born, live and die in the shadow of a giant question mark that refers to three questions: Where do we come from? Why? And where, oh where, are we going!
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSLife is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSI 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.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSAnd it was about then, about that time, that I began to find life unsatisfactory as an explanation of itself and was forced to adopt the method of the artist of not explaining but putting the blocks together in some other way that seems more significant to him. Which is a rather fancy way of saying I started writing.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSI try to work every day because you have no refuge but writing.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSWe are all sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSWe all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSHow long does it have to go on? This punishment? Haven’t I done time enough, haven’t I served my term? can’t I apply for a-pardon?
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSDon’t you just love these long rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn’t just an hour — but a little bit of eternity dropped in your hands — and who knows what to do with it?
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSThe future is called ‘perhaps,’ which is the only possible thing to call the future. And the important thing is not to allow that to scare you.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSNothing’s more determined than a cat on a hot tin roof.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSThe right condition for him is that in which his work in not only convenient but unavoidable.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSSomething in me will save me from utter ruin no matter what comes.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSI always said little Truman had a voice so high it could only be detected by bats.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSYou can be young without money but you can’t be old without it.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMSHell is yourself and the only redemption is when a person puts himself aside to feel deeply for another person.
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS