Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.
Ralph EllisonRead
In those days it was either live with music or die with noise, and we chose rather desperately to live.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the importance of music in enriching life and escaping the chaos of noise.
Ralph Ellison emphasizes the transformative power of music as a vital necessity in life. During challenging times, the choice to embrace music represents a conscious decision to seek beauty, creativity, and meaning, as opposed to succumbing to the overwhelming and often unpleasant sounds of the world around us. The struggle to choose music over noise symbolizes a deeper desire for fulfillment and artistic expression.
Themes
MusicNoiseLifeChoiceArt
In practice
Example use cases
A speaker at a music festival reflecting on the power of music in turbulent times.
More from Ralph Ellison
All quotes βI am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
Ralph EllisonRead
I denounce because though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to the point of invisibility. And I defend because in spite of it all, I find that I love.
Ralph EllisonRead
The blues is an art of ambiguity, an assertion of the irrepressibly human over all circumstance whether created by others or by one's own human failings. They are the only consistent art in the United States which constantly remind us of our limitations while encouraging us to see how far we can actually go. When understood in their more profound implication, they are a corrective, an attempt to draw a line upon man's own limitless assertion.
Ralph EllisonRead
If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me, while teaching me a way into the larger society, then and only then will I drop my defenses and hostility, and I will sing your praises and help you to make the desert bear fruit.
Ralph EllisonRead
All novels are about certain minorities: the individual is a minority. The universal in the novel-and isn't that what we're all clamoring for these days?-is reached only through the depiction of the specific man in a specific circumstance.
Ralph EllisonRead
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