Listen to me, he said, when your dreams are of some world that never was or some world that never will be, and you're happy again, then you'll have given up. Do you understand? And you can't give up, I won't let you.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of perseverance and not giving up on your dreams, even if they seem unattainable.
In this quote, Cormac McCarthy conveys a powerful message about the nature of dreams and aspirations. He warns against the complacency that comes from settling for an idealized version of reality that is disconnected from true fulfillment. The speaker insists on the necessity of striving for one's dreams, suggesting that true happiness comes from the pursuit of one's ambitions, rather than giving in to despair or resignation. This message serves as a reminder that perseverance is crucial, even when faced with challenges that make our dreams seem distant or impossible.
In practice
This quote can be used during a motivational speech at a graduation ceremony to encourage students to pursue their dreams.
Yet it is the narrative that is the life of the dream while the events themselves are often interchangeable. The events of the waking world on the other hand are forced upon us and the narrative is the unguessed axis along which they must be strung.
See the hand that nursed the serpent. The fine hasped pipes of her fingerbones. The skin bewenned and speckled. The veins are milkblue and bulby. A thin gold ring set with diamonds. That raised the once child's heart of her to agonies of passion before I was. Here is the anguish of mortality. Hopes wrecked, love sundered. See the mother sorrowing. How everything that I was warned of's come to pass.
What he could bear in the waking world he could not by night and he sat awake for fear the dream would return.
The judge placed his hands on the ground. He looked at his inquisitor. This is my claim, he said. And yet everywhere upon it are pockets of autonomous life. Autonomous. In order for it to be mine nothing must be permitted to occur upon it save by my dispensation.
Only now is the child finally divested of all that he has been. His origins are become remote as is his destiny and not again in all the world's turning will there be terrains so wild and barbarous to try whether the stuff of creation may be shaped to man's will or whether his own heart is not another kind of clay.
He knew only that his child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke.
There is no perfect time to write. There is only now.
Be active! Take on responsibility! Work for the things you believe in. If you do not, you are surrendering your fate to others.
Finally, if you want to write, you have to just shut up, pick up a pen, and do it. I'm sorry there are no true excuses. This is our life. Step forward. Maybe it's only for ten minutes. That's okay. To write feels better than all the excuses.
The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they can't find them, make them.
All of the courses that run through real streets are very demanding. There is no room for error, no shoulders to lean on. If you go off the road, you're into somebody's shop-window or front porch.
I’m going to be a star, you know why? Because I have nothing left to lose.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.