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

Interpretation

What this quote means

The stakes of failure in theater are high, leaving a lasting impact on those involved.

In this quote, Lillian Hellman highlights the unique pressures and emotional toll that come with failures in theater as opposed to other forms of writing. The significant financial investment and the intense emotional connection to the performance amplify feelings of guilt and disappointment, making theatrical failure particularly dramatic and painful.

Themes

TheaterFailureDramaGuiltWriting

In practice

Example use cases

During a theater workshop, an instructor might use this quote to illustrate the importance of accepting failure as part of the creative process.

More from 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?
Lillian HellmanRead
If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.
Lillian HellmanRead
It is best to act with confidence, no matter how little right you have to it.
Lillian HellmanRead
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.
Lillian HellmanRead
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.
Lillian HellmanRead
It is not good to see people who have been pretending strength all their lives lose it even for a minute.
Lillian HellmanRead

Similar quotes

The second, and I think this is the much more overt and I think it is the main cause, I have been increasingly demonstrating or trying to demonstrate that every possible stance a critic, a scholar, a teacher can take towards a poem is itself inevitably and necessarily poetic.
Harold BloomRead
When I was a bad writer, I would consciously imitate other NPR writers who I thought were wonderful. I suppose that everyone's artistic practice is different. But I collaborate and sometimes don't agree at all with my collaborators' opinions. It forces you to understand why you don't agree with something: what's the fight you're picking.
Ira GlassRead
I'd rather direct than produce. Any day. And twice on Sunday.
Steven SpielbergRead
Any woodthrush shows it - he sings, not to fill the world, but because he is filled.
Jane HirshfieldRead
I don't know what is better than the work that is given to the actor - to teach the human heart the knowledge of itself.
Laurence OlivierRead
Now art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.
Oscar WildeRead

A little wisdom, now and then

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