Look, we're all the same; a man is a fourteen-room house - in the bedroom he's asleep with his intelligent wife, in the living-room he's rolling around with some bareass girl, in the library he's paying his taxes, in the yard he's raising tomatoes, and in the cellar he's making a bomb to blow it all up.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The quote uses a house metaphor to show how people contain contradictory impulses and roles simultaneously.
- In plain terms
- People are like houses with many different rooms for different sides of them.
- What can you take from it?
- Human beings hold conflicting desires and roles at once.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Which room do you show others?
- What are you hiding in the cellar?
Another view
The metaphor simplifies complex psychology into static rooms.
More from Arthur Miller
Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.
Permalink to quote #103 The word 'now' is like a bomb thrown through the window, and it ticks.
Permalink to quote #105 I love her too, but our neuroses just don't match.
Permalink to quote #102
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