He believed that life, true life, was something that was stored in music. True life was kept safe in the lines of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin while you went out in the world and met the obligations required of you. Certainly he knew (though did not completely understand) that opera wasn't for everyone, but for everyone he hoped there was something. The records he cherished, the rare opportunities to see a live performance, those were the marks by which he gauged his ability to love.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the idea that true life and emotional depth are found in music, particularly in the operatic works of Tchaikovsky.
In this quote, Ann Patchett reflects on the profound connection between life and music, suggesting that music serves as a repository of true experiences and emotions. The protagonist views opera not merely as entertainment but as a crucial part of love and existence, indicating a belief that everyone can find their own form of music that resonates with them. The appreciation of music becomes a measure of one's capacity to love and engage with the deeper aspects of life.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of arts education, this quote could highlight how music enriches our lives.
Show kindness whenever possible. Show it to the people in front of you, the people coming up behind you, and the people with whom you are running neck and neck. It will vastly improve the quality of your own life, the lives of others, and the state of the world.
There was such an incredible logic to kissing, such a metal-to-magnet pull between two people that it was a wonder that they found the strength to prevent themselves from succumbing every second. Rightfully, the world should be a whirlpool of kissing into which we sank and never found the strength to rise up again.
It was too much work to remember things you might not have again, and so one by one they opened up their hands and let them go.
Why is it that we understand playing the cello will require work, but we attribute writing to the magic of inspiration?
Reading fiction not only develops our imagination and creativity, it gives us the skills to be alone. It gives us the ability to feel empathy for people we've never met, living lives we couldn't possibly experience for ourselves, because the book puts us inside the character's skin.
Write because you love the art and the discipline, not because you're looking to sell something.
I wanted to emulate music from America - young punks playing rock n' roll is what it was. I read part of Keith Richards' autobiography, and it was totally parallel with me, learning from American records.
I'll play it first and tell you what it is later.
After 58 years you'd think writing would get easier. It doesn't. If you're lucky, you become harder to please. That's all right, it's still a pleasure.
As I listen to the silence, I learn that my feelings about art and my feelings about the Creator of the Universe are inseparable. To try to talk about art and about Christianity is for me one and the same thing, and it means attempting to share the meaning of my life, what gives it, for me, its tragedy and its glory.
It's evening, one of those gray water-color washes, like liquid dust.
If a story doesn't give you a hard-on in the first couple of scenes, throw it in the goddamned garbage.
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