The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
Don DelilloRead
The language of my books has shaped me as a man.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The author attributes his personal development to the influence of literature.
In this quote, Don Delillo emphasizes the profound impact that reading and writing have had on his identity and character. He suggests that the language and themes explored in his books have not only shaped his style as a writer but have also significantly influenced his thoughts, values, and understanding of the world.
Themes
LanguageBooksIdentityInfluenceWriting
In practice
Example use cases
During a book club meeting discussing the impact of literature.
More from Don Delillo
All quotes βWar is the form nostalgia takes when men are hard-pressed to say something good about their country.
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American writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be more dangerous.
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For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.
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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.
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[I]n the American soul there is a lonely individual standing in a vast landscape. β¨He is either on a horse or driving a car, depending, and either way heβs carrying a gun. β¨This is one of the essential images in American mythology.
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Similar quotes
Each book, intuitively sensed and, in the case of fiction, intuitively worked out, stands on what has gone before, and grows out of it. I feel that at any stage of my literary career it could have been said that the last book contained all the others.
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She doesn't do the things heroines are supposed to. Which is rather Jane Austen's point - Fanny is her subversive heroine. She is gentle and self-doubting and utterly feminine; and given the right circumstances, she would defy an army.
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In a memoir, your main contract with the reader is to tell the truth, no matter how bizarre.
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Authors, she soon decided, were probably best met within the pages of their novels, and were as much creatures of the reader's imagination as the characters in their books. Nor did they seem to think one had done them a kindness by reading their writings. Rather they had done one the kindness by writing them.
Alan BennettRead
Great, big, serious novels always get awards. If it's a battle between a great, big, serious novel and a funny novel, the funny novel is doomed.
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I wrote The Grapes of Wrath in one hundred days, but many years of preparation preceded it.
John SteinbeckRead