Give me hunger, pain and want, Shut me out with shame and failure From your doors of gold and fame, Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger! But leave me a little love.
Carl SandburgRead
I have become infected, now that I see how beautifully a book is coming out of all this.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses the transformative power of writing and creativity.
In this quote, Carl Sandburg reflects on the profound change that occurs within an individual when they engage in the creative process of writing. He suggests that despite any challenges or struggles faced, the beauty and fulfillment derived from creating something meaningful, like a book, ultimately outweigh the difficulties, leading to a sense of infection or deep passion for the art of expression.
Themes
CreativityWritingBooksBeautyTransformation
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech on the importance of creativity in education, one might quote Sandburg to inspire students.
More from Carl Sandburg
All quotes βNothing happens... but first a dream.
Carl SandburgRead
Read the dictionary from A to Izzard today. Get a vocabulary. Brush up on your diction. See whether wisdom is just a lot of language.
Carl SandburgRead
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Carl SandburgRead
There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.
Carl SandburgRead
A liar goes in fine clothes, a liar goes in rags, a liar is a liar, clothes or no clothes.
Carl SandburgRead
Similar quotes
I don't know any writer for whom it comes easily. Maybe John Updike - a story would just seem to come to him whole, you know, out of a personal experience. But the rest of us, I think, are not so lucky, and I had to work hard, yeah.
Philip RothRead
White... is not a mere absence of colour; it is a shining and affirmative thing, as fierce as red, as definite as black... God paints in many colours; but He never paints so gorgeously, I had almost said so gaudily, as when He paints in white.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead
Songs don't have to be about going out on Saturday night and having a good rink-up and driving home and crashing cars. A lot of what I've done is about alienation... about where you fit in society.
David BowieRead
Music is spiritual. The music business is not.
Van MorrisonRead
Anybody that creates anything is just creating new compositions of things that have existed before. We're all creating something, we're all creating our own personal works of art in ourselves.
Rick OwensRead
Your first duty as a writer is to write to please yourself. And you have no duty towards anyone else.
Iris ChangRead