The dimensions of a work of art are seldom realized by the author until the work is accomplished. It is like a flowering dream. Ideas grow, budding silently, and there are a thousand illuminations coming day by day as the work progresses. A seed grows in writing as in nature. The seed of the idea is developed by both labor and the unconscious, and the struggle that goes on between them.
Interpretation
The creative process reveals its true depth only upon completion, much like nature's growth.
This quote by Carson McCullers explores the intricate and often subconscious journey of creating art. The author suggests that a work of art evolves in dimensions and complexity as it is created, akin to the natural growth of a plant from a seed. It emphasizes the importance of both conscious effort and the unconscious inspirations that contribute to artistic expression. The metaphor of a 'flowering dream' illustrates how ideas develop quietly over time, culminating in a rich and nuanced final creation.
In practice
During an art exhibition, one could use this quote to explain the artist's creative process.
Wherever you look there’s meanness and corruption. This room, this bottle of grape wine, these fruits in the basket, are all products of profit and loss. A fellow can’t live without giving his passive acceptance to meanness. Somebody wears his tail to a frazzle for every mouthful we eat and every stitch we wear—and nobody seems to know. Everybody is blind, dumb, and blunt-headed—stupid and mean.
There's nothing that makes you so aware of the improvisation of human existence as a song unfinished. Or an old address book.
She was afraid of these things that made her suddenly wonder who she was, and what she was going to be in the world, and why she was standing at that minute, seeing a light, or listening, or staring up into the sky: alone.
The trouble with me is that for a long time I have just been an I person. All people belong to a We except me. Not to belong to a We makes you too lonesome.
Because in some men it is in them to give up everything personal at some time, before it ferments and poisons--throw it to some human being or some human idea. They have to.
Once you have lived with another, it is a great torture to have to live alone.
Au revoir, jewelled alligators and white hotels, hallucinatory forests, farewell.
A film is a terrible thing to waste.
There’s no grandfatherly fondness in me, There are no gray hairs in my soul! Shaking the world with my voice and grinning, I pass you by, - handsome, Twentytwoyearold.
What comes forth from you as an artist cannot be controlled. But you have responsibilities as a global citizen. Your history dictates your duty. And by writing about black people, you are not limiting yourself. The experiences of African-Americans are as wide open as God's closet.
The poet makes silk dresses out of worms.
The best thing about acting is that I get to lose myself in another character and actually get paid for it. As for myself, I'm not really sure who I am. I change every day.
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