Skip to content

Portrait of Horton Foote

Horton Foote

(1916–2009) Screenwriter United States

21 quotes in 226 categories

Horton Foote was a screenwriter from the United States, best known for The young man from Atlanta.

Quick Facts About Horton Foote

Born: March 14, 1916
Died: March 4, 2009
Nationality: United States
Profession: Screenwriter
Notable works: The young man from Atlanta
Known for: To Kill a Mockingbird

About Horton Foote

Albert Horton Foote Jr. was an American playwright and screenwriter. He received Academy Awards for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), which was adapted from the 1960 novel of the same name by Harper Lee, and Tender Mercies (1983). He was also known for his notable live television dramas produced during the Golden Age of Television.

Biography source: Wikipedia

Awards & Honors

Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay Pulitzer Prize for Drama Primetime Emmy Award Writers Guild of America Award PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award Evelyn F. Burkey Award star on Playwrights' Sidewalk

Quotes by Horton Foote

I come out of a strong oral tradition in the South.

Oral tradition

Image

I have enormous respect for the human being because they're asked to take on a lot. And I don't think there's any…

Afraid

Image

I often write about nonreligious people, and I try to find situations where their sense of humanity is restored or discovered. I…

About

Image

I’ve known people that the world has thrown everything at to discourage them...to break their spirit. And yet something about them retains…

Break

Image

My mother, twenty-two, was Harriet Gautier Brooks, named for her paternal grandmother, but always called Hallie. My father, twenty-six, was Albert Horton…

Albert

Image

I've lived long enough to know things go in and out of fashion, and things not well received now can be totally…

Enough

Image

Writing is the thing that props me up.

Props

Image

When you're a writer, you have to write these stories, even if you don't get paid

Ifs

Image

A writer has an inescapable voice. I think it's inherent in the nature, and I think that we don't control it anymore…

About

Image

I believe very deeply in the human spirit, and I have a sense of awe about it. I look around and ask,…

About

Image

I don't think I'll ever stop writing. I write almost every day. I'd write plays even if they were never done again.…

Again

Image

Early on, I said to myself that I would like to write a kind of moral and spiritual history of a place.…

Early

Image

You have to watch out with my plays. They're like yeast. You think they're one thing, then all of a sudden subtext…

One thing

Image

I'm a social writer in the sense that I want to record, but not in the sense of trying to change people's…

Mind

Image

But I don't really write to honor the past. I write to investigate, to try to figure out what happened and why…

Admire

Image

I so earnestly believe that prayer can be helpful and guide you and protect you and inspire you. I mean, I'm in…

Awe

Image

A lot of writing is thinking.

Lot

Image

If I ever teach writing again, I’d say the first lesson is to listen.

Firsts

Image

I've redone plays of mine and made changes. A play is a living thing, and I'd never say I wouldn't rewrite years…

Because

Image

My first memory was of stories about the past - a past that, according to the storytellers, was superior in every way…

About

Image

In New York, there are a lot of plays to see, and I try to see as many as I can.

I can

Image

Horton Foote by topic