Literature is not a picture of life, but is a separate experience with its own kind of flow and enhancement.
Interpretation
Literature provides a unique experience that transcends mere representation of life.
This quote by William Stafford emphasizes that literature should not be seen as a mere reflection of real life; rather, it is an immersive experience that offers its own rhythm and depth. It suggests that reading and engaging with literature allows individuals to access a distinct understanding of the world, one that is filled with its own emotions and insights, enriching our experience beyond the limitations of reality.
In practice
In a book club, to discuss the depth of literary experiences.
I keep following this sort of hidden river of my life, you know, whatever the topic or impulse which comes, I follow it along trustingly. And I don't have any sense of its coming to a kind of crescendo, or of its petering out either. It is just going steadily along.
They miss the whisper that runs any day in your mind, "Who are you really, wanderer?"-- and the answer you have to give no matter how dark and cold the world around you is: "Maybe I'm a king.
A speech is something you say so as to distract attention from what you do not say.
The things you do not have to say make you rich. Saying things you do not have to say weakens your talk. Hearing things you do not need to hear dulls your hearing. And things you know before you hear them β those are you, those are why you are in the world.
A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu.
So, the world happens twice--_x000D_ once what we see it as;_x000D_ second it legends itself_x000D_ deep, the way it is.
I am writing to a rhythm and not to a plot.
My dad would go to work every day and write in a room full of funny people. He enjoyed it. I know great writers who find the process agonising but to me, writing has always been sheer joy.
If you take a few days to write an outline, you're just making up scenes that you think will work, that you think will be interesting. But as you write it, other ideas occur - better ideas that have to do with what you're writing.
Even though what I do does enter the market, it doesn't interest me. I am exclusively concerned with the formal qualities of my work. It is about the need and the right to self-expression.
I never step upon a stage without asking myself whether I will succeed in finishing the opera. The fact is that a conscientious singer is never sure of himself or of anything. He is ever in the hands of Destiny.
Real music lovers are actually my favourite kind of people because they like to know, rather than just be told what to think.
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