“I was almost killed once in a car accident. I was drunk and I ran off the side of the road and I turned over four times. They took me out of that car for dead, but I lived. And I prayed last night to know why I lived and she died, but I got no answer to my prayers. I still don’t know why she died and I lived. I don’t know the answer to nothing. Not a blessed thing. I don’t know why I wandered out to this part of Texas drunk and you took me in and pitied me and helped me to straighten out and married me. Why, why did this happen? Is there a reason that happened? And Sonny’s father died in the war. My daughter killed in an automobile accident. Why? You see, I don’t trust happiness. I never did, I never will.”
Horton Foote, screenplay for Tender Mercies
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
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