Emmy

“To live is to be destroyed,” Le G told me. “There is no other way to get through life. We have to have hopes and we have to witness them being shattered; we have to love and we have to lose; we have to fail; we have to find ourselves depleted of faith. I have been destroyed repeatedly, but I have been able to recuperate; I have been able to mend myself; to love and to be loved; to find some other way of working.”
― James Grissom, Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog

“It won’t be easy to understand people, ever,” Tenn told me, “but our lives require us to keep trying.”
― James Grissom, Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog

“Here is the importance of bearing witness. We do not grow alone, talents do not prosper in a hothouse of ambition and neglect and hungry anger; love does not arrive by horseback or prayer or good intentions. We need the eyes, the arms, and the witness of others to grow, to know that we have existed, that we have mattered, that we have made our mark. And each of us has a distinct mark that colors our surroundings, that flavors the recipe of ‘experience’ in which we find ourselves; but we remain blind, without identity, until someone witnesses us.”
― James Grissom, Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog

“When we can’t imagine understanding or loving a God or some other myth of support, we attach ourselves to artistic symbols: the lost soul; the waif; the abused artist. This is all utter nonsense. Get to work. Work hard and well. Your troubles are no one’s business but your own. Don’t be a Pharisee extolling yourself on the street—take it inside; use it; share it; overcome it.”
― James Grissom, Follies of God: Tennessee Williams and the Women of the Fog