I’m not interested in stories about the past or any crap of that kind because the woods are burning, boys, you understand? There’s a big blaze going on all around. I was fired today.
– Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman, Act 2. Willy uses the metaphor of the woods on fire to describe how his life is falling apart after being fired from his job. He is telling his sons that he is not interested in stories about the past. But ironically it is because of his past, and how his delusions have finally caught up with him, that his life is now burning down.