In a dream you are never eighty.
Anne SextonRead
You get a little picture that reflects the whole. You can get readers interested in the life of one guy, and he can reflect the whole life around him. And it's a better picture than the politicians give you.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Personal stories can encapsulate larger truths about society, often providing more insight than political narratives.
In this quote, Jimmy Breslin conveys the idea that individual experiences and stories can serve as powerful mirrors of broader societal issues. He suggests that through the life of one person, a reader can gain a nuanced understanding of the larger human experience and societal context, and that these personal narratives often resonate more deeply than the simplified or politicized views provided by politicians.
Themes
Personal StoriesSocietyPoliticsNarrativeUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the power of journalism, one might quote Breslin to highlight the importance of individual narratives.
Similar quotes
And he began to see the truth, that Ged had neither lost nor won but, naming the shadow of his death with his own name, had made himself whole: a man who, knowing his whole true self, cannot be used or possessed by any power other than himself, and whose life therefore is lived for life's sake and never in the service of ruin, or pain, or hatred, or the dark.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
When I was young, I had to choose between the life of being and the life of doing. And I leapt at the latter like a trout to a fly. But each deed you do, each act, binds you to itself and to its consequences, and makes you act again and yet again. Then very seldom do you come upon a space, a time like this, between act and act, when you may stop and simply be. Or wonder who, after all, you are.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
A certain kind of shittiness, a certain kind of stagnation, a certain kind of darkness, goes on propagating itself by its own power in its own self-contained cycle. And once it passes a certain point, no one can stop it-even if the person himself wants to stop it.
Haruki MurakamiRead
What is the good life? What is the good man? The good woman? What is the good society and what is my relation to it? What are my obligations to society? What is best for my children? What is justice? Truth? Virtue? What is my relation to nature, to death, to aging, to pain, to illness? How can I live a zestful, enjoyable, meaningful life? What is my responsibility to my brothers? Who are my brothers? What shall I be loyal to? What must I be ready to die for?
Abraham MaslowRead
It would be, in fact, very ominous if Iraq were to be able to get weapon-usable material, hydro-plutonium or highly enriched uranium from abroad.
Mohamed ElbaradeiRead