“The rest of my days I'm going to spend on the sea. And when I die, I'm going to die on the sea. You know what I shall die of? I shall die of eating an unwashed grape. One day out on the ocean I will die--with my hand in the hand of some nice looking ship's doctor, a very young one with a small blond moustache and a big silver watch. "Poor lady," they'll say, "The quinine did her no good. That unwashed grape has transported her soul to heaven.”

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.