Thornton Wilder Quotes - Page 4

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• The dead don't stay interested in us living people for very long. Gradually, gradually, they let go hold of the earth . . . and the ambitions they had . . . and the things they suffered . . . and the people they loved. They get weaned away from the earth - that's the way I put it - weaned away.

  Thornton Wilder

  Letting Go, Ambition, Long

  Our Town act 3 (1938). Ellipses in the original.

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• Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?

  Thornton Wilder

  Realize Life, Realizing, Our Town

  Our Town act 3 (1938)

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• Nature reserves the right to inflict upon her children the most terrifying jests.

  Thornton Wilder

  Nature, Children, Scary

  Thornton Wilder (2009). “The Bridge of San Luis Rey and Other Novels, 1926-1948”

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• People a thousand years from now - this is the way we were in the provinces north of New York at the beginning of the 20th century. This is the way we were: in our growing up and in our marrying and in our living and in our living and in our dying.

  Thornton Wilder

  New York, Growing Up, Book

  Thornton Wilder (1968). “Our town: a play in three acts”

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• Life is an unbroken succession of false situations.

  Thornton Wilder

  Life, Inspire, Unbroken

  Thornton Wilder, Jackson R. Bryer (1992). “Conversations with Thornton Wilder”, p.80, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Winning children (who appear so guileless) are children who have discovered how effective charm and modesty and a delicately calculated spontaneity are in winning what they want.

  Thornton Wilder

  Children, Winning, Want

  Interview in "Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, First Series", edited by Malcolm Cowley, 1958.

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• Throughout the hours of the night, though there had been few to hear it, the whole sky had been loud with the singing of these constellations.

  Thornton Wilder

  Night, Sky, Singing

  Thornton Wilder (1956). “A Thornton Wilder Trio: The Cabala, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Woman of Andros”

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• A living is made, Mr Kemper, by selling something that everybody needs at least once a year.Yes, sir! And a million ismade by producing something that everybody needs every day.You artists produce something that nobody needs at any time.

  Thornton Wilder

  Time, Artist, Years

  1954 The Matchmaker, act 1.

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• When you're at war, you think about a better life; when you're at peace you think about a more comfortable one.

  Thornton Wilder

  Peace, War, Thinking

  1942 The Skin of Our Teeth, act 1.

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• A sense of humor judges one's actions and the actions of others from a wider reference. It pardons shortcomings, it consoles failure.

  Thornton Wilder

  Humor, Judging, Action

  "The Eighth Day". Book by Thornton Wilder, 1967.

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• On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below.

  Thornton Wilder

  Friday, July, Bridges

  Thornton Wilder (1956). “A Thornton Wilder Trio: The Cabala, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Woman of Andros”

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• People were always asking for good sound proofs; doubt springs eternal in the human breast, even in countries where the Inquisition can read your very thoughts in your eyes.

  Thornton Wilder

  Country, Spring, Eye

  Thornton Wilder (2014). “The Bridge of San Luis Rey: A Novel”, p.9, Harper Collins

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• If a man has no vices, he is in great danger of making vices about his virtues, and there's a spectacle.

  Thornton Wilder

  Men, Vices, Virtue

  Thornton Wilder, Jackson R. Bryer (1992). “Conversations with Thornton Wilder”, p.122, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Only it seems to me that once in your life before you die you ought to see a country where they don't talk in English and don't even want to.

  Thornton Wilder

  Country, Travel, Want

  Thornton Wilder (1968). “Our town: a play in three acts”

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• But such occasions of excellence became less and less frequent. As her technique became sounder, [her] sincerity became less necessary.

  Thornton Wilder

  Excellence, Technique, Sincerity

  Thornton Wilder (1956). “A Thornton Wilder Trio: The Cabala, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, The Woman of Andros”

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• Many plays - certainly mine - are like blank checks. The actors and directors put their own signatures on them.

  Thornton Wilder

  Play, Signatures, Directors

  The New York Mirror, July 13, 1956.

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• The best part of married life is the fights. The rest is merely so-so.

  Thornton Wilder

  Life, Marriage, Fighting

  The Matchmaker act 2 (1954)

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• The future author is one who discovers that language, the exploration and manipulation of the resources of language, will serve him in winning through to his way.

  Thornton Wilder

  Writing, Winning, Way

  Interview in "Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, First Series", edited by Malcolm Cowley, 1958.

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• I am not interested in the ephemeral - such subjects as the adulteries of dentists. I am interested in those things that repeat and repeat and repeat in the lives of the millions.

  Thornton Wilder

  Ephemeral, Adultery, Dentist

  1961 In the New York Times, 6 Mar.

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• I was an old man when I was 12; and now I am an old man, AND IT'S SPLENDID!

  Thornton Wilder

  Men, Splendid, Old Man

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• Many great writers have been extraordinarily awkward in daily exchange, but the greatest give the impression that their style was nursed by the closest attention to colloquial speech.

  Thornton Wilder

  Giving, Awkward, Style

  Interview in "Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, First Series", edited by Malcolm Cowley, 1958.

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• I rose by sheer military ability to the rank of corporal.

  Thornton Wilder

  Military, Rose, Soldier

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• Everybody's talking about people breaking into houses but there are more people in the world who want to break out of houses.

  Thornton Wilder

  Talking, Perspective, People

  Thornton Wilder (1966). “Three Plays: Our Town, The Skin of Our Teeth, The Matchmaker”

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• I think I write in order to discover on my shelf a new book that I would enjoy reading, or to see a new play that would engross me.

  Thornton Wilder

  Reading, Book, Writing

  Thornton Wilder, Jackson R. Bryer (1992). “Conversations with Thornton Wilder”, p.78, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• There's nothing like mixing with women to bring out all the foolishness in a man of sense.

  Thornton Wilder

  Men, Mixing, Men And Women

  "Thornton Wilder: Collected Plays & Writings on Theater".

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