27 Quotes By Tennessee Williams


We are all sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life.
Tennessee Williams on alone

When so many are lonely as seem to be lonely, it would be inexcusably selfish to be lonely alone.
Tennessee Williams on alone

All good art is an indiscretion.
Tennessee Williams on art

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 on death

Mendacity is a system that we live in. Liquor is one way out an death's the other.
Tennessee Williams on death

Death is one moment, and life is so many of them.
Tennessee Williams on death

Success and failure are equally disastrous.
Tennessee Williams on failure

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 on failure

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 on future

All of us are guinea pigs in the laboratory of God. Humanity is just a work in progress.
Tennessee Williams on god

To be free is to have achieved your life.
Tennessee Williams on life

I have found it easier to identify with the characters who verge upon hysteria, who were frightened of life, who were desperate to reach out to another person. But these seemingly fragile people are the strong people really.
Tennessee Williams on life

Life is all memory, except for the one present moment that goes by you so quickly you hardly catch it going.
Tennessee Williams on life

You can be young without money but you can't be old without it.
Tennessee Williams on money

In memory everything seems to happen to music.
Tennessee Williams on music

The violets in the mountains have broken the rocks.
Tennessee Williams on nature

A vacuum is a hell of a lot better than some of the stuff that nature replaces it with.
Tennessee Williams on nature

Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it... Success is shy - it won't come out while you're watching.
Tennessee Williams on success

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 on success

Success and failure are equally disastrous.
Tennessee Williams on success