Tennessee Williams: Fathers and Hunger

Tenn and Harold Pinter, honored together in 1981.

A hunger does arise--and continued to exist--for a father, for a man, to look at me with some appreciation or respect. I never had this, and so I wonder if my hungry pilgrimage for this man might have started with my pained relationship with my father.  I so wanted him to be happy--just once--when I entered a room or a conversation. We simply did not understand each other. I'm grateful for the hunger he placed within me, however, as it led to the quest that produced the plays and the stories and the many journeys toward him, toward men, toward understanding.

Harold [Pinter] and I share this, oddly. Never understood, never comfortable, never calm. We keep searching, leaving ink stains all around, all over.

© 2013 James Grissom