Give me hunger, pain and want, Shut me out with shame and failure From your doors of gold and fame, Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger! But leave me a little love.
Carl SandburgRead
Here is the difference between Dante, Milton, and me. They wrote about hell and never saw the place. I wrote about Chicago after looking the town over for years and years.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the value of personal experience in storytelling compared to purely imaginative works.
Carl Sandburg highlights a distinction he makes between the works of Dante and Milton, who wrote about hell without ever having experienced it, and his own writing about Chicago, which is drawn from years of observation and lived experience. This reflects a broader theme about the authenticity and depth that come from genuine encounters with places and emotions, suggesting that true writing comes from understanding the world firsthand.
Themes
ExperienceAuthenticityWritingObservationChicago
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of real-life experiences in art.
More from Carl Sandburg
All quotes →Nothing happens... but first a dream.
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Read the dictionary from A to Izzard today. Get a vocabulary. Brush up on your diction. See whether wisdom is just a lot of language.
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My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
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There is an eagle in me that wants to soar, and there is a hippopotamus in me that wants to wallow in the mud.
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A liar goes in fine clothes, a liar goes in rags, a liar is a liar, clothes or no clothes.
Carl SandburgRead
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