Married couples who quarrel bitterly every day may really need each other as deeply as those who appear to be desperately in love.
I am happy to be a regional writer. My region is the American West, old Mexico, West Virginia, New York, Europe, Australia, the human heart, and the male groin.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses pride in being a writer whose experiences and influences span diverse geographical and emotional landscapes.
Edward Abbey's quote highlights the breadth of his artistic inspiration as a writer. He embraces the variety and richness of his experiences across different regions and cultures, suggesting that true artistry comes from a deep connection to both the physical world and the complex emotions of humanity. The mention of specific places and even the 'human heart' and 'male groin' indicates how personal and universal elements intertwine in his work, emphasizing that every landscape can offer profound stories and insights.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a creative writing workshop, this quote could inspire participants to explore their own unique backgrounds and influences.
More from Edward Abbey
All quotes βI love America because it is a confused, chaotic mess - and I hope we can keep it this way for at least another thousand years. The permissive society is the free society.
If it's knowledge and wisdom you want, then seek out the company of those who do real work for an honest purpose.
The earth is real. Only a fool, milking his cow, denies the cow's reality.
I believe in nothing that I cannot touch, kiss, embrace.... The rest is only hearsay.
Why can't we simply borrow what is useful to us from Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, especially Zen, as we borrow from Christianity, science, American Indian traditions and world literature in general, including philosophy, and let the rest go hang? Borrow what we need but rely principally upon our own senses, common sense and daily living experience.
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Architecture is about public space held by buildings.
Certainly there is, for the American Negro artist who can escape the restrictions the more advanced among his own group would put upon him, a great field of unused material ready for his art.
In the early days, we just wore black onstage. Very bold, my dear. Then we introduced white, for variety, and it simply grew and grew.
Now I found it in writing sentences. You can write that sentence in a way that you would have written it last year. Or you can write it in the way of the exquisite nuance that is sriting in your mind now. But that takes a lot of ... waiting for the right word to come.
I think if you say that art and politics, or religion and politics, mustn't mix, don't mix, that is itself a political statement. Even if you are writing a 19th-century novel where the money comes from a plantation in the Caribbean and you don't talk about that, that itself is a political thing.
There are no lines in nature, only areas of colour, one against another.