Lillian Hellman Quotes

People change and forget to tell each other.
Lillian Hellman

Change, Forget, Tell

Things start out as hopes and end up as habits.
Lillian Hellman

Hope, End, Start

We are a people who do not want to keep much of the past in our heads. It is considered unhealthy in America to remember mistakes, neurotic to think about them, psychotic to dwell on them.
Lillian Hellman

Mistakes, Past, Remember

I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashion.
Lillian Hellman

Fashion, Cannot, Year

It is best to act with confidence, no matter how little right you have to it.
Lillian Hellman

Best, Confidence, Matter

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.
Lillian Hellman

Around, Earth, Stand

Belief is a moral act for which the believer is to be held responsible.
Lillian Hellman

Moral, Act, Belief

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

Speak, Until, Ready

Success isn't everything but it makes a man stand straight.
Lillian Hellman

Success, Makes, Stand

Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth.
Lillian Hellman

Truth, Saying, Cynicism

God forgives those who invent what they need.
Lillian Hellman

God, Invent, Forgives

It is a mark of many famous people that they cannot part with their brightest hour.
Lillian Hellman

Famous, Cannot, Hour

Since when do we have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?
Lillian Hellman

Since, Injustice, Agree

You lose your manners when you are poor.
Lillian Hellman

Poor, Lose, Manners

Failure in the theater is more dramatic and uglier than any other form of writing. It costs so much, you feel so guilty.
Lillian Hellman

Failure, Writing, Guilty

If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.
Lillian Hellman

Writing, Give, Young

It is not good to see people who have been pretending strength all their lives lose it even for a minute.
Lillian Hellman

Good, Strength, Lose

Lonely people, in talking to each other, can make each other lonelier.
Lillian Hellman

Lonely, Talking, Lonelier

My father was often angry when I was most like him.
Lillian Hellman

Angry, Father, Him

Nobody outside of a baby carriage or a judge's chamber believes in an unprejudiced point of view.
Lillian Hellman

Judge, Point, Baby

Nothing you write, if you hope to be good, will ever come out as you first hoped.
Lillian Hellman

Good, Hope, Nothing

Truth made you a traitor as it often does in a time of scoundrels.
Lillian Hellman

Time, Truth, Often

What a word is truth. Slippery, tricky, unreliable. I tried in these books to tell the truth.
Lillian Hellman

Truth, Tell, Word

If you believe, as the Greeks did, that man is at the mercy of the gods, then you write tragedy. The end is inevitable from the beginning. But if you believe that man can solve his own problems and is at nobody's mercy, then you will probably write melodrama.
Lillian Hellman

End, Problems, Write

They're fancy talkers about themselves, writers. If I had to give young writers advice, I would say don't listen to writers talking about writing or themselves.
Lillian Hellman

Writing, Give, Young

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Biography

Nationality: American

Type: Dramatist

Born: June 20, 1905

Died: June 30, 1984

Links

Find on Amazon: Lillian Hellman

Cite this Page: Citation

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