Quotes from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“I've got the guts to die. What I want to know is, have you got the guts to live?”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?—I wish I knew... Just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can...”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“In all these years, you never believed I loved you. And I did. I did so much. I did love you. I even loved your hate and your hardness.”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“Why is it so damn hard for people to talk?”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“I'm not living with you. We occupy the same cage. (Maggie)”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you--gently, with love, and hand your life back to you, like something gold you let go of--and I can! I'm determined to do it--and nothing's more determined than a cat on a tin roof--is there?”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“Time goes by so fast. Nothin' can outrun it. Death commences too early--almost before you're half-acquainted with life--you meet the other.”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“Of course you always had that detached quality as if you were playing a game without much concern over whether you won or lost, and now that you've lost the game, not lost but just quit playing, you have that rare sort of charm that usually only happens in very old or hopelessly sick people, the charm of the defeated.”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“Maggie, we're through with lies and liars in this house. Lock the door.”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“It's like a switch, clickin' off in my head. Turns the hot light off and the cool one on, and all of a sudden there's peace.”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“My only point, the only point that I'm making, is life has got to be allowed to continue even after the dream of life is--all--over....”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“The human animal is a beast that dies but the fact that he’s dying don’t give him pity for others.”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“How long does it have to go on? This punishment? Haven't I done time enough, haven't I served my term? can't I apply for a-pardon?”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“Laws of silence don't work....
When something is festering in your memory or your imagination, laws of silence don't work, it's just like shutting a door and locking it on a house on fire in hope of forgetting that the house is burning. But not facing a fire doesn't put it out. Silence about a thing just magnifies it. It grows and festers in silence, becomes malignant....”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“No, truth is something desperate, an' she's got it. Believe me, it's something desperate, an' she's got it.”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“A drinking man's someone who wants to forget he isn't still young and believing”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“I’m not good. I don’t know why people have to pretend to be good, nobody’s good.”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“My head don't work any more and it's hard for me to understand how anybody could care if he lived or died or was dying or cared about anything but whether or not there was liquor left in the bottle and so I said what I said without thinking. In some ways I'm no better than the others, in some ways worse because I'm less alive. Maybe it's being alive that makes them lie, and being almost not alive that makes me sort of accidentally truthful--I don't know but--anyway--we've been friends...And being friends is telling each other the truth...”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“And so tonight we're going to make the lie true, and when that's done, I'll bring the liquor back here and we'll get drunk together, here, tonight, in this place that death has come into...”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“human beings dream of life everlasting, that's the reason! But most of them want it on earth and not in heaven.”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“I'm a rich man, Brick, yep, I'm a mighty rich man. Y'know how much I'm worth? Guess, Brick! Guess how much I'm worth! Close to ten million in cash an' blue chip stocks, outside, mind you, of twenty-eight thousand acres of the richest land this side of the valley Nile! But a man can't buy his life with it, he can't buy back his life with it when his life has been spent, that's one thing not offered in the Europe fire-sale or in the American markets or any markets on earth, a man can't buy his life with it, he can't buy back his life when his life is finished...

Big Daddy: (pp. 65)”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“Margaret: Oh you weak people, you weak, beautiful people! - who give up. What you want is someone to [she turns out the rose-silk lamp] take hold of you. Gently, gently, with love! And I do love you, Brick, I do!

Brick [smiling with charming sadness]: Wouldn't it be funny if that was true?”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“Big Daddy: What makes you so restless, have you got ants in your britches?
Brick: Yes, sir...
Big Daddy: Why?
Brick: - Something - Hasn't - Happened...
Big Daddy: Yeah? What is that?
Brick [sadly]: - the click...
Big Daddy: Did you say the click?
Brick: Yes, click.
Big Daddy: What click?
Brick: A click that I get in my head that makes me peaceful
Big Daddy: I sure in hell don't know what you're talking about, but it disturbs me.
Brick: It's just a mechanical thing.
Big Daddy: What is a mechanical thing?
Brick: This click that I get in my head that makes me peaceful. I got to drink till I get it.”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“When something is Festering on your memory or in your imagination, laws of silence don't work, it's just like shutting a door and locking it on a house on fire in hope of forgetting that the house is burning. But not facing a fire doesn't put it out. Silence about a thing just magnifies it. It grows and festers in silence, becomes malignant...”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“We mustn't scream at each other, the walls in this house have ears...”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“Big Daddy: Ignorance - of mortality - is a comfort.”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

“I know! WHY! – Am I so catty? – Cause I’m consumed with envy an’ eaten up with longing? –”
― Tennessee Williams, quote from Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

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Popular quotes

“Mzatal gave a decisive nod. “I will
manage this. It cannot continue to interfere
with his work. Too much is at stake.”
I raised an eyebrow. “How do you
intend to manage it?”
“I will tell him the truth and outline the
consequences.”
I was surprised Mzatal didn’t shrivel
away from the look I gave him. “Dude.
Seriously? You expect him to stop
crushing on me because you forbid it?”
Mzatal frowned, contemplative.
“Perhaps not ideal given the entanglement
of human emotions, though there is no time
for it to drag on,” he said, as if he actually
knew what he was talking about. “If he
knows you have no interest and sees how
his distractions have affected his work, he
will subside enough for now.”
My withering look became glacial.
“Boss, you’re completely awesome in
many ways, but you are so off-base with
this it’s not even funny.” I rolled my eyes.
“I’ve already ramped ‘No Interest’ up to
eleven on the dial and, at this point, he
doesn’t care if his work suffers.” I took a
big gulp of coffee, then ran my fingers
through my tangled hair. “Let me deal with
it. Normally I’m not into direct
confrontation with this sort of shit, but
there’s isn’t enough time for it to fizzle out
on its own.”
Mzatal regarded me with that damned
unreadable mask which he’d slipped on as
I was talking. Great. Lords weren’t much
on being told they were wrong, but it had
to be said.”
― Diana Rowland, quote from Touch of the Demon

“This is the middle.
Things have had time to get complicated,
messy, really. Nothing is simple anymore...
This is the thick of things.
So much is crowded into the middle—
...too much to name, too much to think about.”
― Billy Collins, quote from Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems

“What the hell did you say to him, Petey?” Petey said, “A simple seven-word statement of fact.” Matt grinned. “What? My dick is smaller than a housefly’s?” “I’ve got a rifle with a silencer.”
― J.F. Smith, quote from Latakia

“All of my life I’ve had one cardinal rule: the only person I can trust is myself. I’m the only person I can count on to truly look out for me without ulterior motives. That’s what I’m doing now, looking out. I don’t need your hotel. I don’t need your damn limo to give me a ride. And I don’t need you.” He stared at her, a blank expression on his face for a long moment. Finally, he whispered, “But I need you.”
― Lydia Michaels, quote from Coming Home

“Besides, it seems to me, since my pleasure is more or less a foregone conclusion, the main object of the exercise ought to be your pleasure. A rather elusive creature, I've heard. Fascinating sort of quarry.' 'Wait a minute. You're hunting down my orgasms?' His laughter burst out like a rifle salute. 'Kate. You damned magnificent creature.' He rolled onto his back, bringing me with him. 'Yes, my darling. That's exactly what I'd like to do, on and on until the end of my life.”
― Beatriz Williams, quote from Overseas

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