Lillian Hellman

Was it always my nature to take a bad time and block out the good times, until any success became an accident and failure seemed the only truth?

If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.

It is best to act with confidence, no matter how little right you have to it.

If you believe, as the Greeks did, that man is at the mercy of the gods, then you write tragedy. The end is inevitable from the beginning. But if you believe that man can solve his own problems and is at nobody's mercy, then you will probably write melodrama.

Nobody knows what you want except you. And nobody will be as sorry as you if you don't get it. Wanting some other way to live is proof enough of deserving it. Having it is hard work, but not having it is sheer hell.

Failure in the theater is more dramatic and uglier than any other form of writing. It costs so much, you feel so guilty.

It is not good to see people who have been pretending strength all their lives lose it even for a minute.

I've always had great satisfaction out of writing the plays. I've not always had great satisfaction out of seeing them produced-although often I've had satisfaction there. When things go well in production, on opening there's no nicer feeling in the world-what could be nicer than watching an audience respond? You can't that from a book. It's a fine feeling to walk into the theater and see living people respond to something you've done.

Belief is a moral act for which the believer is to be held responsible.

I'm too old to recover, too narrow to forgive myself.

There are people who eat the earth and eat all the people on it like in the Bible with the locusts. And other people who stand around and watch them eat.

No one can argue any longer about the rights of women. It's like arguing about earthquakes.

They're fancy talkers about themselves, writers. If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.

I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashion.

Lonely. I always thought loneliness meant alone, without people. It means something else.