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Tennessee Williams

Tennessee Williams Quotes

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Famous Tennessee Williams Quotes

“I'm much more conscious of historical events since the '60s. In the '60s, I was insulated by my own addictions, my own lifestyle, from what was going on in the world. After I recovered I was amazed at certain people who had died. I hadn't noticed that they had gone. Not friends ... I'm talking about public figures who had passed away.”

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Author:Tennessee Williams
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“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
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“It is only in his work that an artist can find reality and satisfaction, for the actual world is less intense than the world of his invention and consequently his life, without recourse to violent disorder, does not seem very substantial. The right condition for him is that in which his work in not only convenient but unavoidable.”

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Book:The Glass Menagerie
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“He was a boy, just a boy, when I was a very young girl. When I was sixteen, I made the discovery - love. All at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding on something that had always been half in shadow, that's how it struck the world for me. But I was unlucky. Deluded.”

WorldMadeYoungGirlHalfBoysLike YouDiscoveryShadowSixteenDeludedUnlucky
Book:A Streetcar Named Desire: Play in Three Acts
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“I 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. This is so simple I'm ashamed to say it, but I'm sure it's true. In fact, I would bet my life on it! And that's why I don't understand why our propaganda machines are always trying to teach us, to persuade us, to hate and fear other people on the same little world that we live in.”

PeopleWorldWayTryingBelieveLittlesStillsFactsCertainHateChoicesIndividualSinSimpleTeachTakenInfluenceHeroCircumstancesMachinesOriginalsGuiltDon't BelievePropagandaAshamedVillainAlways TryingWrong WayOriginal SinHate And Fear
Book:New Selected Essays: Where I Live
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