"Old paint on a canvas, as it ages, sometimes becomes transparent. When that happens it is possible, in some pictures, to see the original lines: a tree will show through a woman's dress, a child makes way for a dog, a large boat is no longer on an open sea. That is called pentimento because the painter "repented," changed his mind. Perhaps it would be as well to say that the old conception, replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again. That is all I mean about the people in this book. The paint has aged and I wanted to see what was there for me once, what is there for me now."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Memoirists from the United StatesJews from the United StatesScreenwriters from the United StatesWomen academics from the United StatesPlaywrights from the United States
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Pentimento: A Book of Portraits (1973), Introduction
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lillian_Hellman
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Lillian Hellman
Lillian Florence Hellman (20 June 1905 – 30 June 1984) was an American playwright.
22 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Lillian Hellman →
Related Quotes
"There are people who eat earth and eat all the people on it like in the Bible with the locusts. Then there are people…"
"Cynicism is an unpleasant way of saying the truth."
"For every man who lives without freedom, the rest of us must face the guilt."
"I am ready and willing to testify before the representatives of our Government as to my own opinions and my own actio…"
"I am prepared to waive the privilege against self-incrimination and to tell you everything you wish to know about my …"
"A man should be jailed for telling lies to the young."
"We will not think noble because we are not noble. We will not live in beautiful harmony because there is no such thin…"
"Nothing, of course, begins at the time you think it did."
"Nobody outside of a baby carriage or a Judge's chamber can believe in an unprejudiced point of view but, simply in se…"
"Lonely people, in talking to each other can make each other lonelier."