Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door.
Tennessee WilliamsRead
If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.
Interpretation
Honest writing reflects the inner truth of the writer.
This quote by Tennessee Williams emphasizes the intrinsic connection between a writer and their work. When a piece of writing is authentic, it reveals the writer's true self, thoughts, and experiences, making it impossible to separate the narrative from the individual who created it. This notion stresses the importance of honesty in artistic expression, suggesting that genuine writing will resonate with readers because it embodies personal truth and vulnerability.
In practice
In a writing workshop, to inspire students, a mentor could say this quote discussing the importance of personal truth in their stories.
Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door.
Time rushes towards us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.
Show me a person who hasn´t known any sorrow and I´ll show you a superficial.
Success and failure are equally disastrous.
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.
Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.
I don't do fashion, I AM fashion.
I start drawing, and eventually the characters involve themselves in a situation. Then in the end, I go back and try to cut out most of the preachments.
To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.
When I sit down to write a song, it's a kind of improvisation, but I formalize it a bit to get it into the studio, and when I step up to a microphone, I have a vague idea of what I'm about to do.
The greatest films ever made in our history were cut on film, and I'm tenaciously hanging on to the process. I just love going into an editing room and smelling the photochemistry and seeing my editor wearing mini-strands of film around his neck.
It's a cliche, but true, that writing is intensely solitary and at times really lonely. I sit in one room and talk to squirrels and blue jays all day.
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