Letts Quotes & Sayings

Only Certain offered no enticements, for she knew nothing could ease the pain. Not books or photography or food. Not even love. — Billie Letts

She always set three alarms for fear that the first employees to arrive would discover her sleeping - a Goldilocks without her bears — Billie Letts

JOHNNA: When a Cheyenne baby is born, their umbilical cord is dried and sewn into this pouch. Turtles for girls, lizards for boys. And we wear it for the rest of our lives. JEAN: Wow. JOHNNA: Because if we lose it, our souls belong nowhere and after we die our souls will walk the Earth looking for where we belong. — Tracy Letts

If you feel like you're in control of everything, and then things aren't going well, you feel like you're failing. — Tracy Letts

Remember this: change is brought about by good purpose. — Billie Letts

In England, where I come from, fashion and music go hand in hand. They're integral to each other. — Don Letts

MATTIE FAE: I'm still very sexy, thank you very much. VIOLET: You're about as sexy as a wet cardboard box, Mattie Fae, you and me both. Don't kid yourself. — Tracy Letts

I don't write plays for them to be turned into movies. — Tracy Letts

I used to be afraid of the dark. But sometimes, it's the best place to be. Sometimes you can see things in the dark that you can't see in the light. — Billie Letts

Home gives you something no other place can ... your history. Home is where your history begins. — Billie Letts

And the needles of the pine trees, freshly washed to a deep, rich green, shimmered with droplets that blinked like clear crystals. — Billie Letts

Well, sometimes love seems easy. Like..it's easy to love rain ... and hawks. And it's easy to love wild plums ... and the moon. But with people, seems like love's a hard thing to know. It gets all mixed up. I mean, you can love one person in one way and another person in another way. But how do you know you love the right one in every way? — Billie Letts

If you're not entertaining, what the hell's the point? — Tracy Letts

All women need makeup. Don't let anybody tell you different. The only woman who was pretty enough to go without makeup was Elizabeth Taylor and she wore a ton. — Tracy Letts

We're all just people, some of us accidentally connected by genetics, a random selection of cells. Nothing more. — Tracy Letts

I don't know what it says about me that I have a greater affinity with the damaged. Probably nothing good. — Tracy Letts

A certain giving up of control is good for the soul. — Tracy Letts

In theater, the playwright is the boss, period. The decisions will go through him or her. In movies, the writer is pretty far down on the list. — Tracy Letts

[In] the 21st century, the mainstream can satisfy your every whim. I guess the idea of walking around with groups of people dressed the same and saying, "I'm only into ska" or "I'm only into whatever" - is kind of restrictive in the 21st century. I don't know if it's a bad thing that these movements have run their course. I think what I miss about it is the collective experience. — Don Letts

I try to write fun - though difficult and challenging - things for actors to do, because I know if they're having fun, they're going to give it everything they got. — Tracy Letts

After the success of 'August,' there were people saying I should change my life. And maybe I should have bought a yacht and traveled the world instead of returning to Steppenwolf to act in and write plays. But I'm from the Midwest, and that's what we do: We go back to work. — Tracy Letts

Great dressage demands more than skill; it engages a rider's inner wisdom and his ability to communicate with a mount in the silent language of horsemanship. — Elizabeth Letts

BILL: I have not forsook my responsibilities!-
BARBARA: It's "forsaken," big shot!
BILL: Actually, "forsook" is also an acceptable usage!-
BARBARA: Oh, "forsook" you and the horse you rose in on! — Tracy Letts

I'm kind of perverse in that I think pessimism is helpful. My pessimism is my own kind of patriotism. My dissent. — Tracy Letts

You know, people see [August: Osage County], and I tell them that it's based on my family, and they assume that I came from some kind of horrible, hysterical circumstances. That's not true. My family, my nuclear family, was actually very close. My mom and dad were great parents and they encouraged a real rich, creative life for me and my brothers. My extended family, like every family, has some darkness, and some violence of some kind, emotional or otherwise, in their past. — Tracy Letts

It's not a natural translation, transition, to take something from stage to screen. Onstage your action is communicated through the spoken word primarily, and on screen it's communicated through pictures. So it's always been kind of unnatural to take something that lives on the stage and turn it into moving pictures. — Tracy Letts

Basically the subcultures formed in the U.K. because the mainstream was not satisfying the needs of certain people like myself. So through music and through style, we found our tribe, we found like-minded rebels. — Don Letts

BARBARA: You're never coming back to me, are you, Bill? BILL: Never say never, but ... BARBARA: But no. BILL: But no. — Tracy Letts

Well, one of the things we're supposed to be able to do as playwrights is write from a place of empathy, get into another character's shoes and experience things both mundane and tragic. And people don't
like me right now
people aren't necessarily the most eloquent when trying to express their emotions. I guess I feel as a playwright that those people deserve a voice, too, a voice that isn't so articulate that they themselves can no longer identify with it. — Tracy Letts

Our lives can change with every breath we take. — Billie Letts

I saw the spires of Oxford As I was passing by, The gray spires of Oxford Against a pearl-gray sky. My heart was with the Oxford men Who went abroad to die. — Winifred Mary Letts

'Killer Joe' provides a lot of red meat for the theater. Pam MacKinnon is the perfect director to shepherd a group of actors who share a certain bloodlust. — Tracy Letts

Novalee watched his lips shape the words ... the sounds, like whispered secrets, hanging in the air. — Billie Letts

Why does anyone lie? 'Cause we're scared or crazy, maybe just because we're mean. I guess there's a million reason to lie, and I might've told that many ... but none like that. I guess there's always that one lie we never get over.
What?
Oh, maybe you don't know about it yet. Maybe you never tell a lie so big it can eat away a part of you. But if you ever do ... and if you get lucky ... you might a chance to set it right. Just one chance to change it. Then it's gone. And it never comes back again. — Billie Letts

Divorce is an embarrassing public admission of defeat. — Tracy Letts

An old adage says that a good rider can hear his horse speak and a great rider can hear his horse whisper. — Elizabeth Letts

BARBARA: You do understand that it hurts, to go from sharing a bed with you for twenty-three years to sleeping by myself. BILL: I'm here, now. BARBARA: Men always say shit like that, as if the past and the future don't exist. BILL: Can we not make this a gender discussion? BARBARA: Do men really believe that here and now is enough? It's just horseshit, to avoid talking about the things they're afraid to say. — Tracy Letts

I'm aware that a film is different than a play, and that a film isn't going to be the filmed record of the play. It's its own separate entity, and I've come to peace with that. — Tracy Letts

But if it's something you want, then time doesn't matter. Time doesn't matter at all. — Billie Letts

A man can't love you because you haven't read as many books as he has? He can't love you because you don't speak French or because you don't go to operas? You're telling me we have to fall in love with people who are just like us? — Billie Letts

When books and plays are made into movies, they frequently want to cut out the valleys and just show the peaks. — Tracy Letts

IVY: Mom believes women don't grow more attractive with age. KAREN: Oh, I disagree, I - VIOLET: I didn't say they "don't grow more attractive," I said they get ugly. And it's not really a matter of opinion, Karen dear. You've only just started to prove it yourself. — Tracy Letts

By night within that ancient house Immense, black, damned, anonymous. — Tracy Letts

CHARLIE: So you can't even see Ivy's point? MATTIE FAE: No. CHARLIE: That Little Charles and Beverly share some kind of ... complication. MATTIE FAE: Honey, you have to be smart to be complicated. CHARLIE: That's our boy. Are you saying our boy isn't smart? MATTIE FAE: Yes, that's what I'm saying. — Tracy Letts

Some people do stage and film. Some people are film actors, and some people are stage actors. I'm quite sure that any of the actors who did the original production of 'August' could have done the film of 'August.' I don't think any of them were particularly surprised when they didn't wind up doing the film. — Tracy Letts

Never act like you want it, darlin'. Act like you wouldn't own it if they paid you. Tell them it's dirty, broken ... a useless thing. Then make an offer. — Billie Letts

Thank God we can't tell the future. We'd never get out of bed. — Tracy Letts

I think my experience as an actor helps me to write anything. It certainly helped me to write 'August Osage County.' It helps me to write any play that I'm working on because I think one of the things I do well is write good roles for actors. — Tracy Letts

Who letts his wife goe to every feast, and his horse drinke at every water, shall neither have good wife nor good horse. — George Herbert

I don't have a great face for camera. — Tracy Letts

Fantastic," I said without an ounce of enthusiasm. "I'm just one more embarrassing confession away from taking over the world."
Spencer Nye — Jason Letts

I do think the internet has killed the mystery of the planet. It's removed the pain, the passion, and the struggle - I firmly believe they're all part of creativity. — Don Letts

BARBARA: Even if things don't work out with you and Marsha. BILL: Cindy. BARBARA: Cindy. BILL: Right. Even if things don't work out. BARBARA: And I'm never really going to understand why, am I? (Bill struggles ... it seems as if he might say something more, but then BILL: Probably not. (Silence. Bill heads for the door. Barbara watches him go and sobs.) BARBARA: I love you ... I love you ... (He stands for a moment, his back to her. He exits. Barbara stands, alone.) — Tracy Letts

That God once loved a garden we learn in Holy writ.
And seeing gardens in the Spring I well can credit it. — Winifred Mary Letts

The boy, a ten-year-old copy of the man... — Billie Letts

You're thoughtful, Barbara, but you're not open. You're passionate, but you're hard. You're a good, decent, funny, wonderful woman, and I love you, but you're a pain in the ass. — Tracy Letts

Home is the place that'll catch you when you fall. And we all fall. — Billie Letts

A normal person is just someone you don't know real well. — Tracey Letts

I never know what the hell I'm writing about, I never know what the next thing I'm writing about is, I never have a plan. — Tracy Letts

I used to think that if I were a certain kind of person I would spend all my time creating something beautiful. Well, it turns out I am, and I am. — Jason Letts

Listen to me: die after me, all right? I don't care what else you do, where you go, how you screw up your life, just ... survive. Outlive me, please. — Tracy Letts

She's the Indian who lives in my attic. — Tracy Letts

EAT THE FISH, BITCH! — Tracy Letts

I don't believe moviegoers don't have patience. Screenwriters are told a scene can't be longer than three minutes, that you have to cut to the chase. Not true! — Tracy Letts

I'm not a fan - this is a personal preference - I'm not a fan of tour-de-force writing. I admire it, but it's not where my inclination is. I want to hide. — Tracy Letts

I like Shakespeare, but I never know what the hell is going on. — Tracy Letts

When I write a play, and we read it for the first time, the great fear is that everybody is going to say, 'You're a bum and you can't write. This stinks.' and throw the script in the garbage. The great hope is that they're all going to lift me up on their shoulders and carry me to the streets, singing, 'He's a genius, he's a genius!' — Tracy Letts

Vern, deflated, slackened his pace. — Jason Letts

We covered this around Year Three, Bill: that you're the Master of Space and Time and I'm a spastic Pomeranian. — Tracy Letts

You ever hear of Killer Joe Cooper? — Tracy Letts

Sometimes my family thinks I've made my childhood a bit more Dickensian than it was, and it probably wasn't all that bad. But I was uncomfortable as a kid. — Tracy Letts

Tell them that we have some good in us, too. And the only thing worth living for is the good. That's why we've got to make sure we pass it on. — Billie Letts

I'm just a Chicago actor who's a playwright. Even with the success of 'August,' the people in town who come to our theater know me by sight, because they've seen me onstage so much. — Tracy Letts

Some small and very specialized breeding operations bred saddle horses for hunter and jumper competitions - these tended to be small-scale operations owned by wealthy private breeders who kept one or two horses at stud. — Elizabeth Letts

Just as ballroom dancing and pair skating command partners to work together seamlessly, in the sport of dressage, the rider performers an intricate pas de deux with his partner - a twelve-hundred-pound four-footed beast. — Elizabeth Letts

The money The girl stiffened at something she heard in his voice, something jagged and sharp, like words torn by the blade of a knife. — Billie Letts

VIOLET: Oh, horseshit, horeshit, let's all say horseshit. Say horseshit, Bill.
BILL: Horseshit. — Tracy Letts

BARBARA: They're called Native Americans now, Mom.
VIOLET: Who calls them that? Who makes that decision? — Tracy Letts

JOHNNA: What pills does she take? BEVERLY: Valium. Vicodin. Darvon, Darvocet. Percodan, Percocet. Xanax for fun. OxyContin in a pinch. Some Black Mollies once, just to make sure I was still paying attention. And of course Dilaudid. I shouldn't forget Dilaudid. — Tracy Letts

Among the numerous heartbreaks of this terrible war, the innocent horses shot, abused, and killed would not rank among the worst atrocities - but somehow, the killing of innocent beasts, domesticated animals who existed only for man's beauty and pleasure, seemed to highlight the barbaric and depraved depths to which man had allowed himself to sink. — Elizabeth Letts

You ever think about this? Every year you live, you pass the anniversary of your death. Now you don't know what day it is, of course. — Billie Letts

The stallion's crest was arched, his nose was perpendicular to the floor, and his hind legs were gathered underneath him, showing off the powerfully developed muscles in his massive hindquarters. His ears cocked back toward his rider - he was concentrating. — Elizabeth Letts

Beauty is learned, my love, and you know every trick in the book, — Jason Letts

I like it when actors get an opportunity to chew into something. They love scenes with beginnings, middles, and ends - scenes that give an arc to their characters and allow audiences to get to know these people. — Tracy Letts

The whole journey of style-driven subcultural movements is finished now in the UK. The internet kind of killed it. — Don Letts

Come on, Forney.'
Novalee, it's a parasite.'
But it's a tradition.'
It's a parasite! And you expect people to stand under it and kiss?'
Yes! it's what people do with mistletoe. — Billie Letts

Now think of it this way: which do you think would be better for Dottie, havin' ten thousand dollars so maybe she could go to that Amazon school, or havin' a beat-up, old, ugly, naggy, alcoholic — Tracy Letts

I grew up in a small town, in a small community, and I would not have had access to great plays when I was a kid were it not for the films of 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' and 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.' — Tracy Letts

I'm fifty-six years old - I'm as old as rock 'n roll. — Don Letts

You're dying right now. Right this minute.' He looked at his watch, said, 'Right this second,' then tapped it with his finger. 'See there? That second passed. It's gone. Not gonna come again. And while I'm talking to you, every second I'm talking, a second is passing. Gone. Count them up. Count them down. They're gone. Each one bringing you closer to your dying time. — Billie Letts

My point is, it's not cut and dried, black and white, good and bad. It lives where everything lives: somewhere in the middle. Where everything lives, where all the rest of us live, everyone but you. — Tracy Letts

STEVE: No, we maintain the accounts offshore, just until we get approvals. BILL: To get around approvals? STEVE: To get around approvals until we get approvals. There's a lot of red tape, a lot of bureaucracy. I — Tracy Letts

Awake, she struggled to fill the hours until she could sleep again. But nothing she did made her feel whole. If she ate, she didn't taste the food. If she read, she couldn't remember the words. If she rested, she still felt tired — Billie Letts

The way we tell our stories on stage is that we use spoken word to convey action, and in movies, we use visual images to convey action. — Tracy Letts

The nature of the beast is that film is a director's medium. It's not a Tracy Letts play, it's a John Wells film. 'August: Osage County,' as a play, is done. Written. On the shelf. It'll be performed in its entirety for years. — Tracy Letts

Women are beautiful when they're young, and not after. Men can still preserve their sex appeal well into old age ... Some men can maintain, if they embrace it ... cragginess, weary masculinity. Women just get old and fat and wrinkly. — Tracy Letts

BILL: Please, sweetheart, we need to know what went on here. JEAN: Nothing "went on." Can we just not make a federal case out of everything? — Tracy Letts

You don't work as hard to watch a movie. You work harder to watch a play, so what the audience puts into it is interesting. — Tracy Letts

The window shades have all been removed. Nighttime is now free to encroach. — Tracy Letts

When English author Anna Sewell wrote Black Beauty, in the late nineteenth century, she said that her aim was to "induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses." Though now considered a children's classic, the book was originally intended for an adult audience. Narrated from the horse's point of view, the novel describes Black Beauty's life, from his earliest memory, of "a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it" to his wretched existence pulling a heavy load for a cruel peddler. The sentimental and emotionally wrenching book was wildly popular, quickly becoming a bestseller first in England and then in the United States, where it became a favorite of the progressive movement. Sewell's book was the first to popularize interest in the plight of the horse and to generate widespread concern about the beast of burden's treatment. — Elizabeth Letts