Quotes from work
A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire is a play written by Tennessee Williams that opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947. The play dramatises the life of Blanche DuBois, a Southern belle who, after encountering a series of personal losses, leaves her aristocratic background seeking refuge with her sister and brother-in-law in a dilapidated New Orleans apartment building.

“Some things are not forgiveable. Deliberate cruelty is not forgiveable. It is the most unforgiveable thing in my opinion, and the one thing in which I have never, ever been guilty.”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“When I was sixteen, I made the discovery -- love. All at once and much, much too completely. It was like you suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow, that's how it struck the world for me.”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“You're simple, straightforward and honest, a little bit on the primitive side, I should think. To interest you a woman would have to…
-To lay her cards out on the table.”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“Stella:
And when he comes back I cry on his lap like a baby..
[she smiles to herself]
Blanche:
I guess that is what is meant by being in love..”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“Stanley:
Delicate piece she is.
Stella:
She is. She was. You didn't know Blanche as a girl. Nobody, nobody, was tender and trusting as she was. But people like you abused her, and forced her to change.”

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 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 know I fib a good deal. After all, a woman's charm is fifty per cent illusion, but when a thing is important I tell the truth.
- Blanche Scene II”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“Never inside, I didn't lie in my heart…”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“We've had this date with each other from the beginning.”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“They told me to take a streetcar named Desire and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at - Elysian Fields!”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“Well, honey, a shot never does a coke any harm!”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“And funerals are pretty compared to deaths.”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“Oh, you can't describe someone you're in love with!”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“Physical beauty is passing - a transitory possession - but beauty of the mind, richness of the spirit, tenderness of the heart - I have all these things - aren't taken away but grow! Increase with the years!”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“I don't want realism. I want magic!”

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

“Don't you just love those long rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn't just an hour - but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands - and who knows what to do with it?”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it's curved like a road through mountains.”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

“I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

Source: A Streetcar Named Desire

Similar authors

Tennessee Williams photo

Tennessee Williams139

American playwright 1911–1983

Eugene O'Neill photo

Eugene O'Neill36

American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Literature None

John Galsworthy photo

John Galsworthy48

English novelist and playwright None

Sinclair Lewis photo

Sinclair Lewis136

American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright None

Arthur Miller photo

Arthur Miller147

playwright from the United States None

George Bernard Shaw photo

George Bernard Shaw413

Irish playwright None

Marcel Pagnol photo

Marcel Pagnol9

novelist, playwright and filmmaker from France None

Maurice Maeterlinck photo

Maurice Maeterlinck21

Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist None

Harold Pinter photo

Harold Pinter25

playwright from England None

Samuel Beckett photo

Samuel Beckett122

Irish novelist, playwright, and poet None

Similar authors

Tennessee Williams photo

Tennessee Williams139

American playwright 1911–1983

Eugene O'Neill photo

Eugene O'Neill36

American playwright, and Nobel laureate in Literature None

John Galsworthy photo

John Galsworthy48

English novelist and playwright None

Sinclair Lewis photo

Sinclair Lewis136

American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright None

Arthur Miller photo

Arthur Miller147

playwright from the United States None