“It is almost as if you were frantically constructing another world while the world that you live in dissolves beneath your feet, and that your survival depends on completing this construction at least one second before the old habitation collapses.”

American playwright and screenwriter, 20th century

Tennessee Williams was an American playwright and screenwriter of the 20th century. Thomas Lanier Williams III, he is widely regarded alongside Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller as one of the three leading figures in American drama. He wrote for both the stage and the screen, and his name is most closely tied to modern American theater. His reputation rests on the enduring place his plays hold in the canon of 20th-century drama.