Married couples who quarrel bitterly every day may really need each other as deeply as those who appear to be desperately in love.
Edward AbbeyRead
In the modern world, all literary art is necessarily political -- especially that which pretends not to be.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Literary art, regardless of its intention, is influenced by political contexts and ideas.
Edward Abbey's quote emphasizes that all forms of literary art are inherently intertwined with politics, suggesting that even works that claim to be apolitical reflect and respond to the political realities of their time. This assertion challenges the notion of art as separate from social and political discourse, highlighting the responsibility of artists to acknowledge and engage with the political undercurrents present in their work.
Themes
Literary ArtPoliticalExpressionResponsibilitySociety
In practice
Example use cases
During a panel discussion on the impact of literature in politics, this quote can be used to provoke thought.
More from Edward Abbey
All quotes βI love America because it is a confused, chaotic mess - and I hope we can keep it this way for at least another thousand years. The permissive society is the free society.
Edward AbbeyRead
If it's knowledge and wisdom you want, then seek out the company of those who do real work for an honest purpose.
Edward AbbeyRead
The earth is real. Only a fool, milking his cow, denies the cow's reality.
Edward AbbeyRead
I believe in nothing that I cannot touch, kiss, embrace.... The rest is only hearsay.
Edward AbbeyRead
Why can't we simply borrow what is useful to us from Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, especially Zen, as we borrow from Christianity, science, American Indian traditions and world literature in general, including philosophy, and let the rest go hang? Borrow what we need but rely principally upon our own senses, common sense and daily living experience.
Edward AbbeyRead
Similar quotes
Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book, and does.
Groucho MarxRead
Drumming completely eclipsed my life from age 13, when I started drum lessons. Everything disappeared. I'd done well in school up until that time. I was fairly adjusted socially up until that time. And I became completely monomania, obsessed all through my teens. Nothing else existed anymore.
Neil PeartRead
I don't want to analyze myself or anything, but I think, in fact I know this to be true, that I enter the world through what I write. I grew up believing, and continue to believe, that I am a screw-up, that growing up with my family and friends, I had nothing to offer in any conversation. But when I started writing, suddenly there was something that I brought to the party that was at a high-enough level.
Aaron SorkinRead
And he sang to them, now in the Elven tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.
J. R. R. TolkienRead
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.
Edgar Allan PoeRead
Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal.
T. S. EliotRead