"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."
"Winning children (who appear so guileless) are children who have discovered how effective charm and modesty and a delicately calculated spontaneity are in winning what they want."
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Source: Interview in Writers at Work: The Paris Review Interviews, First Series, edited by Malcolm Cowley, 1958.
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More quotes by Thornton Wilder
"I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island."
"My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate."
"There is nothing like eavesdropping to show you that the world outside your head is different from the world inside your head."
"We all know that something is eternal. And it ain’t houses and it ain’t names, and it ain’t earth, and it ain’t even the stars . . . everybody knows in their bones that something is eternal, and that something has to do with human beings. All the greatest people ever lived have been telling us that for five thousand years and yet you’d be surprised how people are always losing hold of it. There’s something way down deep that’s eternal about every human being. -stage manager, in the play OUR TOWN"
"If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a secret agent."