Crude thoughts and fierce forces are my state. I do not know who I am. Nor what I was. I cannot hear a sound. Pain is near that will be like no pain felt before.
Norman MailerRead
Culture is worth a little risk.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Engaging with and preserving culture may involve risks, but it is ultimately valuable.
Norman Mailer's quote suggests that while there may be uncertainties and dangers associated with embracing or promoting culture, the inherent worth and benefits of cultural engagement justify taking those risks. It emphasizes the importance of culture in society and how stepping outside of one's comfort zone can lead to greater understanding and appreciation.
Themes
CultureRiskValueEngagementWorth
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of community arts programs, one might say, 'As Norman Mailer put it, culture is worth a little risk.'
More from Norman Mailer
All quotes βI no longer gave a sick dog's drop for the wisdom, the reliability and the authority of the public's literary mind, those creeps and old ladies of vested reviewing.
Norman MailerRead
There's nothing glorious about being a professional. . . . Professionalism probably comes down to being able to work on a bad day.
Norman MailerRead
The natural role of twentieth-century man is anxiety.
Norman MailerRead
Over-certified adjectives are the mark of most best-seller writing
Norman MailerRead
At bottom, I mean profoundly at bottom, the FBI has nothing to do with Communism, it has nothing to do with catching criminals, it has nothing to do with the Mafia, the syndicate, it has nothing to do with trust-busting, it has nothing to do with interstate commerce, it has nothing to do with anything but serving as a church for the mediocre. A high church for the true mediocre.
Norman MailerRead
Similar quotes
...people will go for anything they don't understand if it's got enough hype. They want to be hip, want always to be in on the new thing so they don't look unhip. White people are especially like that, particularly when a black person is doing something they don't understand...That's what I thought was happening when Ornette hit town.
Miles DavisRead
There's a time when it was an event for a black person to be on television. Where black households would gather around, 'Oh, you know, Sammy Davis is going to be on 'All in the Family' tonight! Let's go check it out!' It was a big, big thing.
Sterling K. BrownRead
Miami is a melting pot in which none of the stones melt. They rattle around.
Tom WolfeRead
In many tribal cultures, it was said that if the boys were not initiated into manhood, if they were not shaped by the skills and love of elders, then they would destroy the culture. If the fires that innately burn inside youths are not intentionally and lovingly added to the hearth of community, they will burn down the structures of culture, just to feel the warmth.
Michael MeadeRead
I wear the national dress because it is the most natural and the most becoming for an Indian.
Mahatma GandhiRead
Pop culture has entered into a nostalgic malaise. Online culture is dominated by trivial mashups of the culture that existed before the onset of mashups, and by fandom responding to the dwindling outposts of centralized mass media. It is a culture of reaction without action.
Jaron LanierRead