Most animals are pragmatic about mysteries: If they run across something they don't understand, all they care about is whether it's edible and whether it's dangerous. Humans, on the other hand, are drawn to the mystery for its own sake.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the fundamental differences in how animals and humans perceive and engage with the unknown.
Tana French's quote suggests that while most animals approach situations through a lens of practicality, assessing whether new experiences are safe or beneficial, humans possess an intrinsic curiosity that drives them to explore mysteries regardless of the risks or rewards. This reflects not only our intelligence but also our emotional and intellectual complexity, as we seek understanding and meaning beyond mere survival.
In practice
Citing this quote in a discussion about the importance of curiosity in human nature.
I used to think I sewed us together at the edges with my own hands, pulled the stitches tight and I could unpick them any time I wanted. Now I think it always ran deeper than that and farther, underground; out of sight and way beyond my control.
Over time, the ghosts of things that happened start to turn distant; once they've cut you a couple of million times, their edges blunt on your scar tissue, they wear thin. The ones that slice like razors forever are the ghosts of things that never got the chance to happen.
Don't get discouraged if you're hammering away at a sentence or a paragraph or a chapter, and it keeps coming out wrong. You're allowed to get it wrong, as many times as you need to; you only need to get it right once.
I wanted to tell her that being loved is a talent too, that it takes as much guts and as much work as loving; that some people, for whatever reason, never learn the knack
If you're writing a scene for a character with whom you disagree in every way, you still need to show how that character is absolutely justified in his or her own mind, or the scene will come across as being about the author's views rather than about the character's.
I had been right: freedom smelled like ozone and thunderstorms and gunpowder all at once, like snow and bonfires and cut grass, it tasted like seawater and oranges.
I heard you asking questions of each: Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?
The government was set to protect man from criminals, and the Constitution was written to protect man from the government.
A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl. I wonder if it wouldn't be simpler just to teach children right from the start that life is absurd.
The Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.
I am a child of God. I always carry that with me.
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