QuoteProject
The cities swept about me like dead leaves, leaves that were brightly colored but torn away from the branches. I would have stopped, but I was pursued by something. It always came upon me unawares, taking me altogether by surprise. Perhaps it was a familiar bit of music. Perhaps it was only a piece of transparent glass.
Tennessee Williams
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects the feeling of being overwhelmed by life's experiences and the unexpected nature of memories and emotions.

Tennessee Williams captures a poignant moment of introspection where the narrator feels swept away by the hustle and bustle of city life, akin to colorful leaves that have lost their connection to their source. This imagery symbolizes the transient beauty of moments past and the unexpected triggers that evoke nostalgia, illustrating how memories and feelings can catch us off-guard, sometimes evoking feelings of loss and longing for what has been left behind.

Themes

MemoriesNostalgiaCitiesChangeLifeMusicSurprise

In practice

Example use cases

During a reflective speech at a gathering, one might use this quote to express the fleeting nature of life moments.

More from Tennessee Williams

Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door.
Tennessee WilliamsRead
Time rushes towards us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.
Tennessee WilliamsRead
Show me a person who hasn´t known any sorrow and I´ll show you a superficial.
Tennessee WilliamsRead
Success and failure are equally disastrous.
Tennessee WilliamsRead
The rest of my days I'm going to spend on the sea. And when I die, I'm going to die on the sea. You know what I shall die of? I shall die of eating an unwashed grape. One day out on the ocean I will die — with my hand in the hand of some nice-looking ship's doctor, a very young one with a small blond moustache and a big silver watch.
Tennessee WilliamsRead
Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.
Tennessee WilliamsRead

Similar quotes

I may not be better than other people, but at least I'm different.
Jean-Jacques RousseauRead
...But listen, there will be more joy in heaven over the tears of a repentant sinner than over the white robes of a hundred just men.
Victor HugoRead
The phrase "It's absolutely the same with me, I..." seems to be an approving echo, a way of continuing the other's thought, but that is an illusion: in reality it is a brute revolt against a brutal violence, an effort to free our own ear from bondage and to occupy the enemy's ear by force. Because all of man's life among his kind is nothing other than a battle to seize the ear of others.
Milan KunderaRead
One of the effects of a safe and civilized life is an immense over sensitiveness which makes all the primary emotions somewhat disgusting.
George OrwellRead
I believe what really happens in history is this: the old man is always wrong; and the young people are always wrong about what is wrong with him. The practical form it takes is this: that, while the old man may stand by some stupid custom, the young man always attacks it with some theory that turns out to be equally stupid.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
There was all this talk when Obama got elected about how we were living in a postracial world. But we're not. Until we get to the point where James Earl Jones can play, say, George Washington, race matters. You wouldn't put a white actor in blackface to play Othello. You shouldn't have a white actor in what amounts to yellowface to play Asian.
David Henry HwangRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Tennessee Williams | QuoteProject