Tennessee Williams quotes

“I have always been pushed by the negative. The apparent failure of a play sends me back to my typewriter that very night, before the reviews are out. I am more compelled to get back to work than if I had a success.”

— Tennessee Williams

“A high station in life is earned by the gallantry with which appalling experiences are survived with grace.”

— Tennessee Williams

“All of us are guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.”

— Tennessee Williams

“Mendacity is a system that we live in. Liquor is one way out an death's the other.”

— Tennessee Williams

“All good art is an indiscretion.”

— Tennessee Williams

“Death is one moment, and life is so many of them.”

— Tennessee Williams

“Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you - gently, with love, and hand your life back to you.”

— Tennessee Williams

“If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.”

— Tennessee Williams

“Why did I write? Because I found life unsatisfactory.”

— Tennessee Williams

“A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with.”

— Tennessee Williams

“We're all of us guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.”

— Tennessee Williams

“Some mystery should be left in the revelation of character in a play, just as a great deal of mystery is always left in the revelation of character in life, even in one's own character to himself.”

— Tennessee Williams

“I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.”

— Tennessee Williams

“The 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 Williams

“Life is an unanswered question, but let's still believe in the dignity and importance of the question.”

— Tennessee Williams

“All your Western theologies, the whole mythology of them, are based on the concept of God as a senile delinquent.”

— Tennessee Williams

“Once you fully apprehend the vacuity of a life without struggle, you are equipped with the basic means of salvation.”

— Tennessee Williams