Lillian Hellman

“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.”

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

“Things start out as hopes and end up as habits.”

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

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

“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.”

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

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

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