“I don't want realism. I want magic!”

— Tennessee Williams , A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I don't want realism. I want magic!" by Tennessee Williams?

Tennessee Williams 139

American playwright 1911–1983

Related quotes

“I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic. I try to give that to people. I do misrepresent things. I don't tell truths. I tell what ought to be truth.”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“I don't want realism. I want magic! Yes, yes, magic! I try to give that to people. I misrepresent things to them. I don't tell the truth, I tell what ought to be the truth. And it that's sinful, then let me be damned for it!”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“I don't think I've ever wanted magic more.”

Joanne K. Rowling (1965) British novelist, author of the Harry Potter series

Tweet https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/746192965568077824 quoted in "J.K. Rowling Wishes Magic Could Get U.K. Out of Brexit" http://time.com/4381196/j-k-rowling-brexit-magic-tweet/ by Amanda Calvo, Time (24 June 2016)
2010s

“Well, I really want to encourage a kind of fantasy, a kind of magic. I love the term magic realism, whoever invented it — I do actually like it because it says certain things. It's about expanding how you see the world.”

Terry Gilliam (1940) American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe

As quoted in "Salman Rushdie talks with Terry Gilliam", in The Believer (March 2003) http://www.believermag.com/issues/200303/?read=interview_gilliam
Context: Well, I really want to encourage a kind of fantasy, a kind of magic. I love the term magic realism, whoever invented it — I do actually like it because it says certain things. It's about expanding how you see the world. I think we live in an age where we're just hammered, hammered to think this is what the world is. Television's saying, everything's saying "That's the world." And it's not the world. The world is a million possible things.

“Saramago is … interesting, but I don't think I would put it higher than that … [he] ventures too far into the realm of 'magic realism' for my taste. Reality itself is magical enough without inventing whimsicalities.”

John Banville (1945) Irish writer

Quote from The militant magician http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/dec/28/featuresreviews.guardianreview11?INTCMP=SRCH, The Guardian (28 December 2002).