We’re too much ourselves. Afraid of letting go of what we are, in case we are nothing, and holding on so tight, we lose everything else.
Clive BarkerRead
Of course it’s the apparently tranquil periods that deceive us. Though our instruments or our senses or our wits may not be able to see the processes that are leading toward these clusters of events, they’re happening. The star, the wheel, the butterfly—all are in a subtle state of unrest, waiting for the moment when some invisible mechanism signals that the time has come. Then the star explodes; the wheel makes poor men rich; the butterfly mates and dies.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that beneath seemingly calm surfaces, significant changes are always in motion, waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves.
Clive Barker's quote highlights the idea that life is full of hidden processes and transformations occurring even when things appear tranquil. These subtle and often unnoticed changes can lead to major events or shifts in fortune, emphasizing the unpredictability of existence and how we may not always be aware of the forces shaping our lives until they manifest dramatically.
Themes
ChangeTransformationUnrestEvolutionHidden Forces
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a motivational speech to inspire resilience during uncertain times.
More from Clive Barker
All quotes →In this sense love is of a different order to any other phenomenon, for it may be both an event and a sign of that invisible mechanism I spoke of before; perhaps the finest sign, the most certain. In it’s throes we need neither luck nor science. We are the wheel, and the man who profits by it. We are the star, and the darkness it pierces. We are the butterfly, brief and beautiful.
Clive BarkerRead
Perhaps a wiser eye than hers would be able to read tomorrow in tonight's stars, but where was the fun in that? It was better not to know. Better to be alive in the Here and the Now--in this bright, laughing moment--and let the Hours to come take care of themselves.
Clive BarkerRead
With the inevitability of a tongue returning to probe a painful tooth, we come back and back and back again to our fears, sitting to talk them over with the eagerness of a hungry man before a full and steaming plate.
Clive BarkerRead
You cut up a thing that's alive and beautiful to find out how it's alive and why it's beautiful, and before you know it, it's neither of those things, and you're standing there with blood on your face and tears in your sight and only the terrible ache of guilt to show for it.
Clive BarkerRead
I'm not the expert on the great gameplay. I come in for the character design, monsters, atmosphere. I'm not the technician.
Clive BarkerRead
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