What's lucky about my career in general is that I stumbled into what every writer most wants. Not repeating myself and doing strange things has become my trademark.
Jonathan LethemRead
Apparently Brooklyn needn't always push itself to be something else, something conscious and anxious, something pointed toward Manhattan.... Brooklyn might sometimes also be pleased, as here on Flatbush, to be its grubby, enduring self.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the idea that one can find value and contentment in their own identity without striving to be like others.
In this quote, Jonathan Lethem highlights the importance of embracing one's authentic self rather than feeling pressured to conform to external standards. He suggests that Brooklyn, symbolizing individuality and authenticity, does not need to aspire to the polished image of Manhattan, but can take pride in its own unique character and history, which is enduring and significant in its own right.
Themes
BrooklynIdentityAuthenticitySelfPride
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about valuing our roots, one could say, 'As Jonathan Lethem reminds us, sometimes we can just be pleased with who we are, our own 'grubby, enduring self.'
More from Jonathan Lethem
All quotes →I learned to write fiction the way I learned to read fiction - by skipping the parts that bored me.
Jonathan LethemRead
Insomnia is a variant of Tourette's--the waking brain races, sampling the world after the world has turned away, touching it everywhere, refusing to settle, to join the collective nod. The insomniac brain is a sort of conspiracy theorist as well, believing too much in its own paranoiac importance--as though if it were to blink, then doze, the world might be overrun by some encroaching calamity, which its obsessive musings are somehow fending off.
Jonathan LethemRead
I'd have been a filmmaker or a cartoonist or something else which extended from the visual arts into the making of narratives if I hadn't been able to shift into fiction.
Jonathan LethemRead
It was only as I wrote about it that I began to find paths of access to feelings that were intolerable to me then.
Jonathan LethemRead
I keep one simple rule that I only move in one direction - I write the book straight through from beginning to end. By following time's arrow, I keep myself sane.
Jonathan LethemRead
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