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Thornton Wilder

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Thornton Wilder

Born: April 17, 1897

Died: December 7, 1975

Nationality: American

Occupation: Novelist, playwright

Biography: Thornton Niven Wilder was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes for the novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey and for the two plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth and a U.S. National Book Award for the novel The Eighth Day.

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Thornton Wilder

“A dramatist is one who believes that the pure event, an action involving human beings, is more arresting than any comment that can be made upon it.”

- Thornton Wilder

Source/Notes: Writers at Work interview (1958)

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Thornton Wilder

“A play visibly represents pure existing.”

- Thornton Wilder

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Thornton Wilder

“An incinerator is a writer's best friend.”

- Thornton Wilder

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Thornton Wilder

“But there comes a moment in everybody's life when he must decide whether he'll live among the human beings or not - a fool among fools or a fool alone.”

- Thornton Wilder

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Thornton Wilder

“Every good thing in the world stands on the razor-edge of danger.”

- Thornton Wilder

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Thornton Wilder

“For what human ill does not dawn seem to be an alleviation?”

- Thornton Wilder

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Thornton Wilder

“Hope, like faith, is nothing if it is not courageous; it is nothing if it is not ridiculous.”

- Thornton Wilder

Source/Notes: The Eighth Day (1967)

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Thornton Wilder

“I am convinced that, except in a few extraordinary cases, one form or another of an unhappy childhood is essential to the formation of exceptional gifts.”

- Thornton Wilder

Source/Notes: Writers at Work interview (1958)

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Thornton Wilder

“I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for.”

- Thornton Wilder

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Thornton Wilder

“I would love to be the poet laureate of Coney Island.”

- Thornton Wilder

Source/Notes: New York Journal-American (11 November 1955)

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Thornton Wilder

“If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a secret agent.”

- Thornton Wilder

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Thornton Wilder

“In advertising, not to be different is virtual suicide.”

- Thornton Wilder

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Thornton Wilder

“It is only in appearance that time is a river. It is rather a vast landscape and it is the eye of the beholder that moves.”

- Thornton Wilder

Source/Notes: The Eighth Day (1967)

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Thornton Wilder

“It is very necessary to have markers of beauty left in a world seemingly bent on making the most evil ugliness.”

- Thornton Wilder

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