Writing is, of course, a solitary occupation. But for many writers, myself included, it's through writing that we make certain vital connections.
Interpretation
Writing is often a lonely activity, yet it serves as a means to connect with others on a deeper level.
In this quote, Elizabeth Berg highlights the paradox of writing as a solitary pursuit that ultimately fosters important connections. While writers work alone, their words have the power to resonate with readers, bridging personal experiences with universal themes and forging bonds based on shared understanding and emotion.
In practice
A writer reflecting on their process might use this quote in a discussion about the emotional depth of writing.
The things that brought me the most comfort now were too small to list. Raspberries in cream. Sparrows with cocked heads. Shadows of bare limbs making for sidewalk filigrees. Roses past their prime with their petals loose about them. The shouts of children at play in the neighborhood, Ginger Rogers on the black-and-white screen.
Everybody complains about getting older, but I find it such a rich time of life. There are negative things about it, I suppose, but more than that, I'm finding it to be a very positive experience in which growth suggests itself in a much more alluring way than it did when I was young - isn't that funny?
I never meant to write about the experience of losing a good friend to breast cancer when I was going through it. But after it was over, I realized that although something deeply sad had happened, something truly beautiful also had.
I made cranberry sauce, and when it was done put it into a dark blue bowl for the beautiful contrast. I was thinking, doing this, about the old ways of gratitude: Indians thanking the deer they'd slain, grace before supper, kneeling before bed. I was thinking that gratitude is too much absent in our lives now, and we need it back, even if it only takes the form of acknowledging the blue of a bowl against the red of cranberries.
My metaphor for translation has always been that translation is really a performance art. You take the original and try to perform it, really, in a different medium. Part of that is about interpretation and what you think the author's voice really is.
Truly great images make all the other millions of images you look at unimportant. You gotta look at an image and understand it in a nanosecond.
Art, well good art at least, takes you to a place you go during the experience of it, and then after you experience it you are different.
At first the music almost repelled me, it was so intense, and this man made no attempt to sugarcoat what he was trying to say, or play. It was hard-core, more than anything I had ever heard. After a few listenings I realized that, on some level, I had found the master, and that following this man's example would be my life's work.
You don't have to be singing specifically about things that are going on in your life, but because of the nature of music, because it is this incredibly emotional phenomenon, everything that you are feeling or experiencing is relayed in the music you put out.
It wasn't a deliberate decision to become a poet. It was something I found myself doing - and loving. Language became an addiction.
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