The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
Don DelilloRead
History was not a matter of missing minutes on the tape. I did not stand helpless before it. I hewed to the texture of collected knowledge, took faith from the solid and availing stuff of our experience. Even if we believe that history is a workwheel powered by human blood -- read the speeches of Mussolini -- at least we've known the thing together. A single narrative sweep, not ten thousand wisps of disinformation. (82)
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of collective experience and knowledge in understanding history rather than relying on fragmented or misleading information.
Don Delillo's quote reflects on the nature of history as a collective narrative shaped by human experiences and knowledge. Rather than being overwhelmed by the disjointed fragments of information that often cloud our understanding of the past, he advocates for a unified perspective that acknowledges the complexities of history while relying on the wisdom gained from collective human experience.
Themes
HistoryCollective ExperienceKnowledgeUnderstandingNarrative
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of education, one might say, 'As Don Delillo wisely noted, history is about collective knowledge, not fragments.'
More from Don Delillo
All quotes →War is the form nostalgia takes when men are hard-pressed to say something good about their country.
Don DelilloRead
American writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be more dangerous.
Don DelilloRead
For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.
Don DelilloRead
I used to think it was possible for an artist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory.
Don DelilloRead
[I]n the American soul there is a lonely individual standing in a vast landscape. He is either on a horse or driving a car, depending, and either way he’s carrying a gun. This is one of the essential images in American mythology.
Don DelilloRead
Similar quotes
The Edmund Pettus Bridge - which in 2013 was declared a National Historic Landmark - isn't symbolic of the Civil War in a meaningful way. It is, however, the modern-day battlefield where the voting rights movement was born.
Douglas BrinkleyRead
The U.K. and the U.S. could not have been built today without Africa's aid. It is all the resources that were taken from Africa, including human, that built these countries today! So when they try to give back, we shouldn't be on the defensive.
Ngozi Okonjo-IwealaRead
William Wilberforce...w as a great man who impacted the Western world as few others have done. Blessed with brains, charm, influence and initiative, much wealth ... he put evangelism on Britain's map as a power for social change, first by overthrowing the slave trade almost single-handed and then by generating a stream of societies for doing good and reducing evil in public life... To forget such men is foolish.
J. I. PackerRead
The American Revolution was carried out in the name of the people, and it was supposedly 'We, the people,' who created the government that Americans still live under.
Edmund MorganRead
I understood when I was quite small that there were two special things about the Jews. That we'd endured for over 3,000 years despite everything that had been thrown at us, and that we had an extraordinarily dramatic story to tell.
Simon SchamaRead
The histories of the poor and the powerless are as important as those of their conquerors, their colonizers, their kings and queens.
Johnnetta B. ColeRead