English is the only interesting thing that's left in my life.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a deep value placed on language as a vital element of existence amidst other uninteresting aspects of life.
Joseph Brodsky highlights the significance of language, specifically English, as the sole captivating element in his life. This perspective suggests that, despite other facets of life potentially fading in interest or appeal, the power of language remains a compelling force for expression, connection, and meaning.
In practice
A teacher might use this quote to emphasize the importance of learning a language in life.
Basically, it's hard for me to assess myself, a hardship not only prompted by the immodesty of the enterprise, but because one is not capable of assessing himself, let alone his work. However, if I were to summarize, my main interest is the nature of time. That's what interests me most of all. What time can do to a man.
One always pulls the trigger out of self-interest and quotes history to avoid responsibility or pangs of conscience.
On the whole, infinity is a fairly palpable aspect of this business of publishing, if only because it extends a dead author's existence beyond the limits he envisioned, or provides a living author with a future he cannot measure. In other words, this business deals with the future which we all prefer to regard as unending.
The invention of ethical and political doctrines, which blossomed into our own social sciences, is a product of times when things appeared manageable. The same goes for the criticism of those doctrines, though as a voice from the past, this criticism proved prophetic.
Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of those - in the official capacity as well as the self-appointed.
To put it in plain language, Russia is that country where the name of a writer appears not on the cover of his book, but on the door of his prison cell.
You're only here for a short visit. Don't hurry, don't worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.
The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it.
I think the kitchen is the new garage. And I think for a guy that wants to go out and be an evolved person, he should know about his local favorite restaurant. He should know how to cook something.
Life is fragile, like the dew hanging delicately on the grass, crystal drops that will be carried away on the first morning breeze.
That the sum of a man's life was not where he wound up but in the details that brought him there. That we made mistakes. I closed my eyes, sick of the riddles, and to my surprise all I could see were dandelions-as if they had been painted on the fields of my imagination, a hundred thousand suns. And I remembered something else that makes us human: faith, the only weapon in our arsenal to battle doubt.
Ah, but in time the heat of noontide passes, and to it there succeed nightfall and dusk, with a return to the quiet fold where for the weary an the heavy-laden there waits sleep, sweet sleep.
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