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A cannon fires only once but words detonate across centuries
Grant Morrison
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Words have a lasting impact, potentially influencing generations long after they are spoken.

This quote emphasizes the enduring power of words compared to physical actions. While actions, like firing a cannon, may be momentary and limited to a single instance, spoken or written words can resonate through time, affecting thoughts, emotions, and societies for centuries to come.

Themes

WordsImpactLegacyInfluenceCommunicationPower

In practice

Example use cases

In a graduation speech to emphasize the power of their message.

More from Grant Morrison

We're the new power, come to replace the old. Cameras in the head, children with microchips, spin doctors rewriting reality as it happens.
Grant MorrisonRead
A comic will always be more 'personal' than a DVD or CD, both of which require electronic 'players' to decode their content. With comics, the reader is the player so the engagement with the material is always more fundamental and dynamic. Reading comics is a much less passive activity than consuming CDs and DVDs.
Grant MorrisonRead
American writers often say they find it difficult to write Superman. They say he's too powerful; you can't give him problems. But Superman is a metaphor. For me, Superman has the same problems we do, but on a Paul Bunyan scale. If Superman walks the dog, he walks it around the asteroid belt because it can fly in space. When Superman's relatives visit, they come from the 31st century and bring some hellish monster conqueror from the future. But it's still a story about your relatives visiting.
Grant MorrisonRead
Gayness is built into Batman. I'm not using gay in the pejorative sense, but Batman is very, very gay. There's just no denying it. Obviously as a fictional character he's intended to be heterosexual, but the basis of the whole concept is utterly gay.
Grant MorrisonRead
I'm the evil mastermind behind the scenes. I'm the wicked puppeteer who pulls the strings and makes you dance. I'm your writer.
Grant MorrisonRead
Adults...struggle desperately with fiction, demanding constantly that it conform to the rules of everyday life. Adults foolishly demand to know how Superman can possibly fly, or how Batman can possibly run a multibillion-dollar business empire during the day and fight crime at night, when the answer is obvious even to the smallest child: because it's not real.
Grant MorrisonRead

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