Every book is three books, after all; the one the writer intended, the one the reader expected, and the one that casts its shadow when the first two meet by moonlight.
John M. FordRead
I long for the simplicity of theatre. I want lessons learned, comeuppances delivered, people sorted out, all before your bladder gets distractingly full. That's what I want. What I know is what we all know, whether we'll admit it or not: every attempt to impose the roundness of a well-made play on reality produces a disaster. Life just isn't so, nor will it be made so.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a desire for the simplicity and clarity of theatre, contrasting it with the chaos and complexity of real life.
John M. Ford expresses a longing for the straightforward narratives found in theatre, where conflicts are resolved and lessons are learned quickly. However, he recognizes that real life is far more complicated than fiction, and attempts to impose such simplicity on the chaotic nature of reality are bound to fail, leading to disaster.
Themes
TheatreRealitySimplicityComplexityLife
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about storytelling techniques, this quote can emphasize the difference between theatre and real-world experiences.
More from John M. Ford
All quotes →Similar quotes
War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.
James MadisonRead
For forty years, I have devoted myself to the cause of the people's revolution with but one aim in view - the elevation of China to a position of freedom and equality among the nations.
Sun Yat-SenRead
Night can swallow you up, yet none of it touches you. Around any corner, there's a promise of something daring and ideal and things are just getting going. There's something obscenely joyful behind every door, either that or somebody crying with their head in in their hands. A lazy rhythm looms in the dreamy air and the atmosphere pulsates with bygone duels, past-life romance, comrades requesting comrades to aid them in some way. You can't see it, but you know it's there
Bob DylanRead
If you know that life is basically going to be horrendously difficult, at best, and all but unlivable at worst, or possibly even unlivable, do you go on? And the choice to go on is the only thing that I think can be called hope. Because if hope isn't forced to encounter the worst possibility, then it's a lie.
Tony KushnerRead
We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another, unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made of layers, cells, constellations.
Anais NinRead
He [Zampano] probably would of insisted on corrections and edits, he was his own harshest critic, but I've come to believe errors, especially written errors, are often the only markers left by a solitary life: to sacrifice them is to lose the angels of personality, the riddle of a soul. In this case a very old soul. A very old riddle.
Mark Z. DanielewskiRead