ending quotation in CAPOTE

[Fred Shapiro]

On Sun, 22 Jan 2006, Stephen Goranson wrote:

> I haven't seen the movie, but according to the introduction to Capote's
> Complete Stories, he planned a book called Answered Prayers, a title he
> said he got from a quote of St. Teresa of Avila: "More tears are shed
> over answered prayers than unanswered ones."

Thanks for the information.  The more usual attribution for this thought
is Oscar Wilde's "When the gods wish to punish us they answer our
prayers."  I have not come across the attribution to St. Teresa of Avila
before, and would welcome any further documentation for that.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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