All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.
Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Literature aims to engage readers deeply, while journalism focuses on immediate understanding.
This quote by Cyril Connolly highlights the difference between literature and journalism. Literature is created as an art form that encourages readers to reflect and revisit the text, often uncovering deeper meanings on subsequent readings. In contrast, journalism is geared towards delivering information quickly to the audience, who seek to grasp the content immediately, often providing straightforward facts without the layered nuances found in literary works.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used at a writing workshop to illustrate the differences between different forms of writing.
More from Cyril Connolly
All quotes βWhen I contemplate the accumulation of guilt and remorse which, like a garbage-can, I carry through life, and which is fed not only by the lightest action but by the most harmless pleasure, I feel Man to be of all living things the most biologically incompetent and ill-organized. Why has he acquired a seventy years life-span only to poison it incurably by the mere being of himself? Why has he thrown Conscience, like a dead rat, to putrefy in the well?
A lazy person, whatever the talents with which he set out, will have condemned himself to second-hand thoughts and to second-rate friends.
The artist is a member of the leisured classes who cannot pay for his leisure.
We are all serving a life sentence in the dungeon of the self.
Imprisoned in every fat man a thin man is wildly signaling to be let out.
Similar quotes
Quite frankly, I didn't become an actor to become a movie star. I have never dreamed about being the most famous person on the planet. I just want to do really good work.
The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.
Reviews for someone like me come in three packages. One is justifiable praise, the second is justifiable criticism, and the third is, "This is only published because he's a celebrity."
It's a pity that if someone who has a really profoundly potent art to share chooses not to or doesn't fit into this very thin slice of what's desirable and marketable, chances are the public will never get a chance to hear what they're doing.
I used to agonise over what to do next, but now I'm making a movie a year. It's insane, but it's only a movie after all. You just hang in there, and occasionally you might make something which you can call art... briefly.
The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion, all in one.