I don't feel I've arrived home until I get on the beach. All my life, the theater of the sea has been a very strong thing.
Derek WalcottRead
A long time ago, I thought, as a writer in the Caribbean, 'I don't ever want to have to write 'It was great in Paris.'' Because I don't think, proportionately speaking, that one's experience in a city as opposed to, say, a village in St. Lucia, is superior to the other.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creativity and perspective are shaped by experiences, whether in urban or rural settings.
Derek Walcott reflects on the value of one's experiences, suggesting that living in a small village can be as rich and meaningful as residing in a major city like Paris. This idea challenges conventional perceptions of success and highlights the importance of acknowledging diverse environments and experiences in the creative process.
Themes
ExperienceCreativityPerspectiveCityVillage
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a workshop on creative writing to emphasize the importance of diverse experiences.
More from Derek Walcott
All quotes →Creating a poem is a continual process of re-creating your ignorance, in the sense of not knowing what's coming next.
Derek WalcottRead
My mother was a schoolteacher and very, very encouraging. She understood what it meant when I said I wanted to be a writer; both me and my brother wrote.
Derek WalcottRead
When I went to college - when I read Shakespeare or Dickens or Scott - I just felt that, as a citizen of England, a British citizen, this was as much my heritage as any schoolboy's. That is one of the things the Empire taught, that apart from citizenship, the synonymous inheritance of the citizenship was the literature.
Derek WalcottRead
The truest writers are those who see language not as a linguistic process but as a living element.
Derek WalcottRead
The poet complains or points out the discontent that lies at the heart of man, the individual man, and how can that be redeemed?
Derek WalcottRead
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