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In the marginalia ... we talk only to ourselves; we therefore talk freshly - boldly - originally - with abandonment - without conceit.
Edgar Allan Poe
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote suggests that personal notes and thoughts allow for unfiltered and original self-expression.

Edgar Allan Poe's quote highlights the value of writing in the margins of books or recording personal thoughts, which liberates one's creativity and authenticity. In those private moments, the writer speaks directly to themselves, resulting in bold, original ideas free from the constraints of external judgment or conceit. This emphasizes the importance of introspection and personal creativity in artistic expression.

Themes

CreativityOriginalitySelf-ExpressionIntrospectionWriting

In practice

Example use cases

An artist might use this quote to inspire a workshop on creative writing techniques.

More from Edgar Allan Poe

But evil things, in robes of sorrow, Assailed the monarch's high estate; (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow Shall dawn upon him desolate!) And round about his home the glory That blushed and bloomed, Is but a dim-remembered story Of the old time entombed.
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Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes.
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...the agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long and final scream of despair.
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Where the good and the bad and the worst and the best have gone to their eternal rest.
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I could have clasped the red walls to my bosom as a garment of eternal peace. "Death," I said, "any death but that of the pit!" Fool! might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me?
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In our endeavors to recall to memory something long forgotten, we often find ourselves upon the very verge of remembrance, without being able, in the end, to remember.
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Quote by Edgar Allan Poe | QuoteProject