WIST Quotations

Wilder, Thornton -- “The Art of Fiction No. 16,” interview by Richard H. Goldstone, The Paris Review (1956, Winter)

Dave — Fri, 24 May 2024 16:11:52 +0000

A dramatist is one who believes that the pure event, an action involving human beings, is more arresting than any comment that can be made upon it. On the stage it is always now; the personages are standing on that razor edge, between the past and the future, which is the essential character of conscious being; the words are rising to their lips in immediate spontaneity. […] The theater is supremely fitted to say: “Behold! These things are.”

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) American novelist and playwright
“The Art of Fiction No. 16,” interview by Richard H. Goldstone, The Paris Review (1956, Winter)
(Source)

Collected in Jackson Bryer, ed., Conversations with Thornton Wilder (1992).

Wilder, Thornton -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it’s on your plate.

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) American novelist and playwright
(Attributed)

Wilder, Thornton -- The Bridge of San Luis Rey, final sentence (1967).

Dave — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:36:24 +0000

There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) American novelist and playwright
The Bridge of San Luis Rey, final sentence (1967).

Wilder, Thornton -- The Eighth Day, ch. 1 (1967)

Dave — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 17:04:21 +0000

Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) American novelist and playwright
The Eighth Day, ch. 1 (1967)
(Source)

Wilder, Thornton -- The Matchmaker (1954)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world are fools and the rest of us are in great danger of contagion.

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) American novelist and playwright
The Matchmaker (1954)

Wilder, Thornton -- The Matchmaker, 4 (1954)

Dave — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 13:02:00 +0000

There comes a moment in everybody’s life when he must decide whether he’ll live among human beings or not — a fool among fools or a fool alone.

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) American novelist and playwright
The Matchmaker, 4 (1954)