Lillian Hellman Writer
- Gender: Female
- Citizenship: United States
- Born: Jun 20, 1905
- Died: Jun 30, 1984
Lillian Florence "Lilly" Hellman was an American dramatist and screenwriter famously blacklisted by the House Committee on Un-American Activities at the height of the anti-communist campaigns of 1947 - 52.
Hellman was praised for sacrificing her career by refusing to answer questions by HUAC; but her denial that she had ever belonged to the Communist Party was easily disproved, and her veracity was doubted by many, including war correspondent Martha Gellhorn and literary critic Mary McCarthy.
She adapted her semi-autobiographical play The Little Foxes into a screenplay which received an Academy Award nomination in 1942.
Hellman was romantically involved with fellow writer and political activist Dashiell Hammett for thirty years until his death.
Failure in the theater is more dramatic and uglier than any other form of writing. It costs so much, you feel so guilty.
failure
Things start out as hopes and end up as habits.
hope
It is not good to see people who have been pretending strength all their lives lose it even for a minute.
strength
Nothing you write, if you hope to be good, will ever come out as you first hoped.
hope
Success isn't everything but it makes a man stand straight.
success
It is a mark of many famous people that they cannot part with their brightest hour.
fame
People change and forget to tell each other.
change