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Tennessee Williams Quotes

Playwright

American playwright, renowned for his profound psychological portrayals and unique dramatic style. His notable works include 'A Streetcar Named Desire' and 'The Glass Menagerie'.

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Famous Tennessee Williams Quotes

“I think no more than a week after I started writing I ran into the first block. It's hard to describe it in a way that will be understandable to anyone who is not a neurotic.”

Thinking Way Writing Firsts Hard Week Block Ran Neurotic

Book:Sweet Bird of Youth

Source: Sweet Bird of Youth

“I have always been more interested in creating a character that contains something crippled. I think nearly all of us have some kind of defect.”

Thinking Kind Character Creating Perfection Defects Crippled

Book:Conversations with Tennessee Williams

Source: Conversations with Tennessee Williams

“When I write I don't aim to shock people, and I'm surprised when I do. But I don't think that anything that occurs in life should be omitted from art, though the artist should present it in a fashion that is artistic and not ugly. I set out to tell the truth. And sometimes the truth is shocking.”

People Thinking Should Writing Art Sometimes Artist Fashion Truth Is Aim Ugly Artistic Shock Telling The Truth Shocking

Author:Tennessee Williams

“I don't think a married couple can go through life without laughs together any more than they can without tears.”

Thinking Together Laughing Tears Couple Married Married Couples

Book:The Theatre of Tennessee Williams

Source: The Theatre of Tennessee Williams

“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.”

Thinking Knows Wells Littles Two Different Today Artist Wish Goal Decision Attention Path Honest Comfort Crowds Better Life Divergent True Artists Different Paths Well Wishes

Author:Tennessee Williams

“Don't you think there is always something unspoken between two people?”

People Thinking Two Unspoken

Book:27 Wagons Full of Cotton: And Other One-act Plays

Source: 27 Wagons Full of Cotton: And Other One-act Plays

“If I am no longer disturbed myself, I will deal less with disturbed people and with violent material. I don't regret having concerned myself with such people, because I think that most of us are disturbed.”

People Ifs Thinking Deals Regret Concerned Disturbed Don't Regret

Author:Tennessee Williams

“The strongest influences in my life and my work are always whomever I love. Whomever I love and am with most of the time, or whomever I remember most vividly. I think that's true of everyone, don't you?”

Thinking Love Remember Influence Strongest

Book:Conversations with Tennessee Williams

Source: Conversations with Tennessee Williams

“I think that hate is a feeling that can only exist where there is no understanding.”

Thinking Feelings Hate Understanding Hatred I Hate No Hate

Book:The Theatre of Tennessee Williams

Source: The Theatre of Tennessee Williams

“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.”

Source: New Selected Essays: Where I Live

“People are not so dreadful when you know them. That's what you have to remember! And everybody has problems, not just you, but practically everybody has got some problems. You think of yourself as having the only problems, as being the only one who is disappointed. But just look around you and you will see lots of people as disappointed as you are.”

People Thinking Knows Looks Problem Remember Disappointed

Book:Plays

Source: Plays

“I don't mean what other people mean when they speak of a home, because I don't regard a home as a...well, as a place, a building...a house...of wood, bricks, stone. I think of a home as being a thing that two people have between them in which each can...well, nest.”

People Thinking Wells Mean Two Home House Speak Building Stones Regard Woods Bricks Nests

Book:The Night of the Iguana

Source: The Night of the Iguana

“-You're simple, straightforward and honest, a little bit on the primitive side, I should think. To interest you a woman would have to... -To lay her cards out on the table.”

Thinking Should Littles Bits Sides Interest Simple Honest Little Bit Tables Lays Cards Primitive Straightforward

Author:Tennessee Williams

“You'll be surprised how infinitely merciful they [these tablets] are. The prescription number is 96814. I think of it as the telephone number of God!”

Thinking Numbers Telephones Merciful Prescriptions Tablets

Author:Tennessee Williams

“I think time is a merciless thing. I think life is a process of burning oneself out and time is the fire that burns you.”

Thinking Life Is Time Process Fire Eternity Oneself Burning

Author:Tennessee Williams

“Sorrow makes for sincerity, I think.”

Thinking Sorrow Sincerity

Book:A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“I don't think there is such a thing as a precise sexual orientation. I think we're all ambiguous sexually.”

Thinking Gay Lgbt Precise Sexually Orientation Ambiguous

Author:Tennessee Williams

“But I think the spirit of man is a good adversary”

Thinking Men Spirit Adversaries

Author:Tennessee Williams

About the Author

Born: March 26, 1911
Died: February 25, 1983
Known for: Playwright
Quotes: 315

Books & Sources

The Glass MenagerieRelated source material

The Theatre of Tennessee WilliamsRelated source material

A Streetcar Named DesireRelated source material

Cat on a Hot Tin RoofRelated source material

New Selected Essays: Where I LiveRelated source material

Camino RealRelated source material

Collected StoriesRelated source material

Conversations with Tennessee WilliamsRelated source material

MemoirsRelated source material

NotebooksRelated source material

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