Lillian Hellman

There are people who eat the earth and eat all the people on it like in the Bible with the locusts. And other people who stand around and watch them eat it.

I do not believe in recovery. The past, with its pleasures, its rewards, its foolishness, its punishments, is there for each of us forever.

It's a sad and stupid thing to have to proclaim yourself just to be a decent human being.

What do people want from a writer? The truth. But what is the truth? I think people want the writer to say what they themselves think they would say if they had the guts.

I like people who refuse to speak until they are ready to speak.

The older I grow the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.

From the time I was born, I was going to be a playwright, whether I liked it or not.

I am all for the literature that comes from the gut, from the heart, from the head, but not from the pocketbook.

One way or another we all pay for our successes.

The only thing I miss on the road is the piano.

I suppose the closest I come to a moral position is that I believe in loyalty.

It's awfully easy to be brave when you can't see the consequences.

I don't think it's right to talk about one's craft in a defensive way.

The truth is always the strongest argument.

I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the amount of accurate information in the world.

Lies are the mortar that bind the savage tribes of Europe.

I have always noticed that the people who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them.

Professional writers are a different breed.

The road to the future is often the past.

I don't believe in the easy moral judgments.