A Streetcar Named Desire Quotes

AO2 quotations from Tennessee Williams' 'A Streetcar Named Desire'

Stage directions, Scene 1 - “Her appearance…

is incongruous to this setting”

Stage directions, Scene 1 - “Her delicate beauty…

must avoid a strong light. There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggests a moth”

Blanche, Scene 1 - “They told me…

to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries”

Blanche, Scene 1 - “Daylight never…

exposed so total a ruin!”

Blanche, Scene 1 - “I can’t be…

alone! Because - as you must have noticed - I’m not very well”

Stella, Scene 1 - “And when he…

comes back I cry on his lap like a baby”

Stage directions, Scene 1 - “with the power…

and pride of a richly feathered male bird”

Stage directions, Scene 2 - “He hurls…

the furs to the daybed. Then he jerks open a small drawer”

Stage directions, Scene 3 - “they are men…

at the peak of their physical manhood, as coarse and direct and powerful as the primary colours”

Blanche, Scene 3 - “I can’t stand…

a naked light-bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action”

Stage directions, Scene 3 - “he throws back…

his head like a baying hound and bellows his wife’s name”

Stage directions, Scene 4 - “Her eyes and lips…

have that almost narcotised tranquillity that is in the faces of Eastern idols”

Stella, Scene 4 - “People have…

got to tolerate each other’s habits, I guess”

Stella, Scene 4 - “But there are things…

that happen between a man and a woman in the dark - that sort of make everything else seem - unimportant”

Blanche, Scene 4 - “Maybe he’ll…

strike you or maybe grunt and kiss you!”

Blanche, Scene 4 - “Don’t - don’t…

hang back with the brutes!”

Blanche, Scene 5 - “People don’t…

see you - men don’t - don’t even admit your existence unless they are making love to you”

Blanche, Scene 6 - “He stalks through…

the rooms in his underwear at night. And I have to ask him to close the bathroom door. That sort of commonness isn’t necessary”

Blanche, Scene 6 - “It was like you…

suddenly turned a blinding light on something that had always been half in shadow”

Blanche, Scene 6 - “Sometimes - there’s…

God - so quickly!”

Stanley, Scene 7 - “And for the last…

year or two she has been washed up like poison”

Stanley, Scene 7 - “Her future…

is mapped out for her”

Stanley, Scene 8 - “Don’t ever…

talk that way to me! ‘Pig - Polack - disgusting - vulgar - greasy!’”

Stanley, Scene 8 - “‘Every Man…

is a King!’ And I am the king around here, so don’t forget it!”

Stage directions, Scene 8 - “She clutches her…

throat and then runs into the bathroom. Coughing, gagging sounds are heard”

Stella, Scene 8 - “But people like you…

abused her, and forced her to change”

Stanley, Scene 8 - “I pulled you…

down off them columns and how you loved it, having them coloured lights going!”

Stage directions, Scene 9 - “The music is…

in her mind; she is drinking to escape it and the sense of disaster closing in on her”

Stage directions, Scene 9 - “He ignores it…

and pushes past her into the flat. She looks fearfully after him as he stalks into the bedroom”

Blanche, Scene 9 - “I don’t want…

realism. … I’ll tell you what I want. Magic!”

Blanche, Scene 9 - “I don’t tell…

the truth, I tell what ought to be truth. And if that is sinful, then let me be damned for it!”

Mitch, Scene 9 - “You’re not…

clean enough to bring in the house with my mother”

Stage directions, Scene 10 - “she has decked herself…

out in a somewhat soiled and crumpled white satin evening gown and a pair of scuffed silver slippers”

Blanche, Scene 10 - “But I have been…

foolish - casting my pearls before swine!”

Blanche, Scene 10 - “Deliberate cruelty…

is not forgivable”

Stage directions, Scene 10 - “Lurid reflections…

appear on the walls around Blanche. The shadows are of a grotesque and menacing form”

Stage directions, Scene 10 - “The night is filled…

with inhuman voices like cries in a jungle”

Stanley, Scene 10 - “We’ve had this…

date with each other from the beginning!”

Eunice, Scene 11 - “Men are…

callous things with no feelings”

Stage directions, Scene 11 - “She has a tragic…

radiance in her red satin robe”

Stage directions, Scene 11 - “The Varsouviana…

is filtered into weird distortion”

Stage directions, Scene 11 - “Divested of all…

the softer properties of womanhood, the matron is a peculiarly sinister figure in her severe dress”

Stage directions, Scene 11 - “He … seizes the paper…

lantern, tearing it off the light-bulb, and extends it towards her. She cries out as if the lantern was herself”

Eunice, Scene 11 - “She couldn’t stay here;…

there wasn’t no other place for her to go”

Blanche, Scene 11 - “Whoever you are - I…

have always depended on the kindness of strangers”

Stage directions, Scene 11 - “She sobs with…

inhuman abandon. There is something luxurious in her complete surrender to crying now that her sister is gone”