quote · Legacy record
I think that [William] Faulkner and I each had to escape certain particulars of our lives, and we found salvation through words. I understand the Bible story of Babel so much better now. I think that moments of extremity, desires of escape, lead us to foreign languages--not those learned in schools, but those plucked from the human heart, the searing conditions of isolation. I did not have to be limited to my biography because of words, and I shared this with Faulkner, who invented new words and punctuation and expression and worlds. He utterly reshaped the world.
I think that [William] Faulkner and I each had to escape certain particulars of our lives, and we found salvation through words. I understand the Bible story of Babel so much better now. I think that moments of extremity, desires of escape, lead us to foreign languages--not those learned in schools, but those plucked from the human heart, the searing conditions of isolation. I did not have to be limited to my biography because of words, and I shared this with Faulkner, who invented new words and punctuation and expression and worlds. He utterly reshaped the world.
Approximate author period: c. 1947 AD · modern
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- Author or tradition
- Tennessee Williams
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1947 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1911 to 1983; Wikidata Q134262, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q134262 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 167735; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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