Tennessee Williams: The Only Heaven


Interview with Tennessee Williams
Conducted by James Grissom
New Orleans
1982

A psychiatrist once told me that I just needed to get through the next hour. Just try to survive any depression or doubt for an hour. Then a day. Then, slowly, I might find myself able to live my life without drinking or taking a pill or snorting something or making a scene so grand that it might obliterate what I was feeling. But I can't make it through an hour without commenting on the hour; without noting how the hour felt and what it provided in emotion or color or knowledge. I can't survive a day without being aware of how hurtful life really is all the time, day in and day out. I simply can't understand how people get through it without something to dull the edges and cloud the vision. The only heaven we may ever know lies in those pretty bottles and the woozy grip on reality their contents provide.


© 2014  James Grissom

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