“A fire smokes the most when you start pouring water on it.” ~ Tennessee Williams
The first time I read ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ by Tennessee Williams I was in high school.
The last time I saw the movie was a few days ago.
In some ways I think I understand it less now than I did then.
This is a good thing.
True wisdom doesn’t recognize itself.
Not in its own time.
It’s a testament to the power of this work by Tennessee Williams that it’s still so resonant. It survives and thrives because it lives on so many levels. When one tunnel of thought or analysis is exhausted, another reveals itself below or above it. In the end the labyrinthine maze is too complex for me to fully grasp even after repeated readings and viewings. In fact, it seems to grow more complicated, more dense, more beautifully intertwined with itself as the years pass. Maybe it’s hitting closer to home, and I shrink away from the truths it posits on aging, the desperation that comes from loneliness, the warped way this life erodes innocence and purity.
The slow and subtle diminishing of morals.
The insidiously seductive tentacles of desire.
The brutal spark of unexpected violence.
The world isn’t kind to sensitive creatures.
No…
The world isn’t kind. 
“You see I still have that awful vanity about my looks even now that my looks are slipping!” ~ Tennessee Williams
“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
“I don’t believe in “original sin.” I don’t believe in “guilt.” I don’t believe in villains or heroes – only right or wrong ways that individuals have taken, not by choice but by necessity or by certain still-uncomprehended influences in themselves, their circumstances, and their antecedents.
This is so simple I’m ashamed to say it, but I’m sure it’s true. In fact, I would bet my life on it! And that’s why I don’t understand why our propaganda machines are always trying to teach us, to persuade us, to hate and fear other people on the same little world that we live in.” ~ Tennessee Williams
“Sorrow makes for sincerity, I think.” ~ Tennessee Williams
“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 if that’s sinful, then let me be punished for it!” ~ Tennessee Williams
“There’s been some progress since then, such things as art, as poetry, as music ~ in some kinds of people some tenderer feelings have had some little beginning! That we have got to make grow! And cling to, and hold as our flag in this dark march in whatever it is we’re approaching. Don’t hang back with the brutes!” ~ Tennessee Williams
