Quotessence
Home / Authors / Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams Quotes

Playwright

Filter quotes by topic

AllWritingPeopleWorldIfsCat On A Hot Tin RoofKnowsMenagerieThinkingWayPlayLifeMenGivingTimeHeartWantLoveBelieveBlancheHumans

Famous Tennessee Williams Quotes

“I know so well what becomes of unmarried women who aren't prepared to occupy a position. I've seen such pitiful cases in the South barely tolerated spinsters living upon the grudging patronage of sister's husband or brother's wife! stuck away in some little mouse-trap of a room encouraged by one in-law to visit another little birdlike women without any nest eating the crust of humility all their life! Is that the future that we've mapped out for ourselves?”

KnowsWellsLittlesLawLife IsRoomsCasesWifePositionHumilityBrotherHusbandEatingPreparedSouthStuckTrapsMiceNestsIn-lawsPitifulUnmarriedMarried WomenPatronageSpinstersMouse Traps
Book:The Glass Menagerie
Create image

“Make this decision today. Will you be a good and honest writer, or would you rather be famous, loved, noticed? Tell me, because there are different paths for these two divergent goals. The decision to be a true artist is lonelier and slower, but it will lead to better work and, I think, a better life. Very rarely you will be a good and honest writer and also know a little comfort and some attention and the well wishes of a crowd. This is very rare.”

ThinkingKnowsWellsLittlesTwoDifferentTodayArtistWishGoalDecisionAttentionPathHonestComfortCrowdsBetter LifeDivergentTrue ArtistsDifferent PathsWell Wishes
Author:Tennessee Williams
Create image

“I can find almost anything funny, thank God, so you search for the black, lacy slip that encases the corpse. You know, shift the angle. God may take away, but he often leaves you with a terrific opening line for the next adventure. I would suggest taking it. Move on; change the angle; look at it in a different way tomorrow.”

KnowsWayLooksMayI CanDifferentMovingNextBlackLinesAdventureTomorrowOpeningDifferent WaysThank GodSlipsAngleTerrificCorpsesNext Adventure
Author:Tennessee Williams
Create image

“I'm not in sympathy with Communism except for populations which are in a state of peasantry, actually hungry and starving. The ideal state for me is some form of Socialism, which doesn't yet exist, as far as I know, which doesn't repress the arts, or any race. Consequently I'm not a political person ... except that I'm a revolutionary.”

KnowsPersonsArtStatesFormPoliticalRaceIdealsPopulationHungrySocialismCommunismRevolutionaryStarving
Author:Tennessee Williams
Create image

“Everyone should know nowadays the unimportance of the photographic in art: that truth, life, or reality is an organic thing which the poetic imagination can represent or suggest, in essence, only through transformation, through changing into other forms than those which were merely present in appearance.”

KnowsShouldArtRealityFormImaginationEssenceTransformationAppearancePoeticTruth Of Life
Book:The Theatre of Tennessee Williams
Create image

“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.”

KnowsSoulHandsBigsYoungDiesHeavenPoorWatchesNiceSeaOne DayOceanEatingDoctorsShipsSilverGrapesMoustacheYoung OnesSome Nice
Author:Tennessee Williams
Create image

“Q.Do you have any positive message, in your opinion? A.Indeed I do think that I do. Q.Such as what? A.The crying, almost screaming, need of a great worldwide human effort to know ourselves and each other a great deal better, well enough to concede that no man has a monopoly on right or virtue any more than any man has a corner on duplicity and evil and so forth. If people, and races and nations, would start with that self-manifest truth, then I think that the world could sidestep the sort of corruption which I have involuntarily chosen as the basic, allegorical theme of my plays as a whole.”

PeopleIfsThinkingKnowsMenWorldNeedsHumansWellsSelfEnoughPlayWholeEvilNationsDealsEffortRaceOpinionVirtueCryMessagesCorruptionCornersChosenThemeManifestMonopolyDuplicityPositive Messages
Book:New Selected Essays: Where I Live
Create image