They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
Boris PasternakRead
No bad man can be a good poet.
Interpretation
A good poet must possess moral depth and integrity, as true artistry reflects one's character.
Boris Pasternak's quote suggests that the essence of poetry is intertwined with the poet's moral compass; a poet who lacks goodness cannot create genuine art that resonates with truth and beauty. This implies that artistic expression is not merely a matter of skill or technique, but is profoundly connected to the ethical and emotional state of the creator, emphasizing the necessity of a virtuous heart in producing meaningful work.
In practice
In a literary discussion about the moral responsibilities of artists, this quote can highlight the importance of integrity in poetry.
They don't ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
Even so, one step from my grave, I believe that cruelty, spite, The powers of darkness will in time, Be crushed by the spirit of light.
He is her glory. Any woman could say it. For every one of them, God is in her child. Mothers of great men must have been familiar with this feeling, but then, all women are mothers of great men -- it isn't their fault if life disappoints them later.
Our evenings are farewells. Our parties are testaments. So that the secret stream of suffering. May warm the cold of life.
The most extraordinary discoveries are made when the artist is overwhelmed by what he has to say.
Oh, how one wishes sometimes to escape from the meaningless dullness of human eloquence, from all those sublime phrases, to take refuge in nature, apparently so inarticulate, or in the wordlessness of long, grinding labor, of sound sleep, of true music, or of a human understanding rendered speechless by emotion!
Careers don't interest me. The only thing that interests me is continuing to be a poet on one level or another, whether acting or writing or directing.
Cinema gives you the opportunity to be both a grandparent and a grandchild whereas in life you cannot be both at the same time.
Not till the poets among us can be "literalists of the imagination"-above insolence and triviality and can present for inspection, "imaginary gardens with real toads in them." shall we have it.
I always wanted to make a three-record set. 'Sign o' the Times' was originally supposed to be a triple album, but it ended up as a double.
The willed recovery of what's been lost - often forcibly, I suppose - is what keeps me going. It is this reason I found myself a poet and a collector and now a curator: to save what we didn't even know needed saving.
A writer's work is the product of laziness.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.