The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
Don DelilloRead
Too much has been forgotten in the name of memory.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the idea that the act of trying to preserve memories can sometimes lead to the loss of their true essence or meaning.
Don Delillo's quote suggests that in our quest to remember and preserve information, we may inadvertently overlook or forget the genuine experiences and emotions associated with those memories. It highlights a paradox where the attempt to hold onto the past can lead to a distortion or dilution of what was once significant, as individuals become more focused on recalling facts rather than feeling the moments.
Themes
MemoryNostalgiaExperiencePreservationLoss
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be cited in a lecture on the philosophical implications of memory in art.
More from Don Delillo
All quotes βWar is the form nostalgia takes when men are hard-pressed to say something good about their country.
Don DelilloRead
American writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be more dangerous.
Don DelilloRead
For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.
Don DelilloRead
I used to think it was possible for an artist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory.
Don DelilloRead
[I]n the American soul there is a lonely individual standing in a vast landscape. β¨He is either on a horse or driving a car, depending, and either way heβs carrying a gun. β¨This is one of the essential images in American mythology.
Don DelilloRead
Similar quotes
There is a dark side to the world that we're all familiar with - and you can choose to ignore it and create a sugar-coated, Disney version, or you can acknowledge both the beautiful and the dark.
Rick OwensRead
In this mob of I's inside, which one is me? Hear me out. I know I'm wandering, but don't start putting a lid on this racket. No telling what I'll do then. Every moment I'm thrown by your story. One moment it's happy, and I'm singing. One moment it's sad, and I'm weeping. It turns bitter, and I pull away. But then you spill a little grace, and just like that, I'm all light. It's not so bad, this arrangement, actually.
RumiRead
Indulged habits of dependence create habits of indolence, and indolence opens the portal to petty errors, to many degrading habits, and to vice and crime with their attendant train of miseries.
Dorothea DixRead
No individual is alone responsible for a single stepping stone along the path of progress, and where the path is smooth progress is most rapid.
Ernest LawrenceRead
But who can remember pain, once itβs over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.
Margaret AtwoodRead
Both state and church have as their object actions as well as convictions, the former insofar as they are based on the relations between man and nature, the latter insofar as they are based on the relations between nature and God.
Moses MendelssohnRead