For nowadays the world is lit by lightning! Blow out your candles, Laura -- and so goodbye. . . . Tennessee Williams More Quotes by Tennessee Williams More Quotes From Tennessee Williams Time rushes towards us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation. Tennessee Williams dying time death The work of a writer, his continuing work, depends for breath of life on a certain privacy of heart. Tennessee Williams privacy heart writing There is no pleasure in the world like writing well and going fast. Tennessee Williams pleasure writing world The human heart would never pass the drunk test.... If you took the human heart out of the human body and put a pair of legs on it and told it to walk a straight line, it couldn't do it. Tennessee Williams drunk body heart Hysteria is a natural phenomenon, the common denominator of the female nature. It's the female weapon and the test of a man is his ability to cope with it. Tennessee Williams hysteria women weapons What shouldn't you do if you're a young playwright? Don't bore the audience! I mean, even if you have to resort to totally arbitrary killing on stage, or pointless gunfire, at least it'll catch their attention and keep them awake. Just keep the thing going any way you can. Tennessee Williams writing attention mean When I was fourteen, my father decided to initiate me into the ways of manhood, and took me to the local whorehouse. The woman spread her legs, and made me look between them. All I could see was something that looked like a dyin' orchid; consequently, I have never been comfortable around women or orchids. Tennessee Williams orchids father looks I believe the way to write a good play is to convince yourself it is easy to do, then go ahead and do it with ease. Tennessee Williams play writing believe Is a lifetime long enough to hold the regret that I have for that fantastically aborted but crazily sweet love affair? Tennessee Williams regret sweet long In human character, simplicity doesn't exist except among simpletons. Tennessee Williams simplicity humans character 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. Tennessee Williams fire time thinking Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door. Tennessee Williams liars doors lying We've had this date with each other from the beginning. Tennessee Williams I've got the guts to die. What I want to know is, have you got the guts to live? Tennessee Williams cat-on-a-hot-tin-roof want life Nothing's more determined than a cat on a hot tin roof. Tennessee Williams tin cat hot To begin with, I turn back time. I reverse it to that quaint period, the thirties, when the huge middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind. Their eyes had failed them, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the fiery Braille alphabet of a dissolving economy. Tennessee Williams eye class school Oh you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you Tennessee Williams giving-up beautiful people Talent? What is talent but the ability to get away with something? Tennessee Williams get-away ability talent You know, then that the public Somebody you are when you 'have a name' is a fiction created with mirrors and that the only somebody worth being is the solitary and unseen you that existed from your first breath Tennessee Williams unseen mirrors names I don't believe in villains or heroes, only in right or wrong ways that individuals are taken, not by choice, but by necessity or by certain still uncomprehended influences in themselves, their circumstances and their antecedents. Tennessee Williams taken hero believe
