Quotes from 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.

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

The world is out of shapewhen there are hungry men.

The writer's intention hasn't anything to do with what he achieves. The intent to earn money or the intent to be famous or the intent to be great doesn't matter in the end. Just what comes out.

the convictions of Hollywood and television are made of boiled money.

Mama seemed to do only what my father wanted, and yet we lived the way my mother wanted us to live.

My mother was dead for five years before I knew that I had loved her very much.

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

The only good thing about [aging] is you're not dead.

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

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

I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.

It's a sad day when you find out that it's not accident or time or fortune, but just yourself that kept things from you.

You lose your manners when you are poor.

as one grows older, one realizes how little one knows about any relationship, or even about oneself.

People change and forget to tell each other.

I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.

It's a sad day when you find out that it's not accident or time or fortune, but just yourself that kept things from you.

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

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

I'm too old to recover, too narrow to forgive myself.

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

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

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