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Yes, movies! Look at them - All of those glamorous people - having adventures - hogging it all, gobbling the whole thing up! You know what happens? People go to the movies instead of moving! Hollywood characters are supposed to have all the adventures for everybody in America, while everybody in America sits in a dark room and watches them have them! Yes, until there's a war. That's when adventure becomes available to the masses! Everyone's dish, not only Gable's! Then the people in the dark room come out of the dark room to have some adventures themselves - Goody, goody! - It's our turn now, to go to the south Sea Island - to make a safari - to be exotic, far-off! - But I'm not patient. I don't want to wait till then. I'm tired of the movies and I am about to move!

Tennessee Williams#16

LifeActionAdventureMediaMovies

About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker complains that movies let people live vicariously instead of experiencing real adventures themselves.
In plain terms
People watch movies for adventure instead of going out to find their own.
What can you take from it?
Real life requires action, not just passive consumption of others' stories.

Where it applies

  • discussing media consumption
  • critiquing laziness
  • planning travel

Putting it to work

  • seek real experiences
  • limit passive entertainment
  • take initiative

Questions to consider

  • Is entertainment a valid substitute for experience?
  • What stops people from living adventurously?

Another view

Not everyone has the resources or opportunity to travel or take risks.

More from Tennessee Williams

  1. All pretty girls are a trap, a pretty trap, and men expect them to be.

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  2. All of my gentlemen callers were sons of planters and of course I assumed that I would be married to one and raise my family on a large piece of land with plen…

    Permalink to quote #17
  3. You are the only young man that I know of who ignores the fact that the future becomes the present, the present the past and the past turns into everlasting re…

    Permalink to quote #14

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