We wait till now? Now, when we're old men, we get to be brave?
Ernest GainesRead
I have learned as much about writing about my people by listening to blues and jazz and spirituals as I have by reading novels.
Interpretation
Ernest Gaines emphasizes the importance of music in understanding and expressing cultural narratives.
In this quote, Gaines highlights that his insights into writing about his community and its experiences have been profoundly influenced by the rich musical traditions of blues, jazz, and spirituals. This suggests that art forms like music can offer deep understandings of personal and collective identities, serving as a vital companion to literary learning.
In practice
This quote can be used in a presentation on the influence of music on literature.
We wait till now? Now, when we're old men, we get to be brave?
I was raised by a lady that was crippled all her life but she did everything for me and she raised me. She washed our clothes, cooked our food, she did everything for us. I don't think I ever heard her complain a day in her life. She taught me responsibility towards my brother and sisters and the community.
...my heart may have been in it but my soul was not.
Everything's been said, but it needs saying again.
Question everything. Every stripe, every star, every word spoken. Everything.
The Six Golden Rules of Writing: Read, read, read, and write, write, write.
There rise her timeless capitals of empires daily born, whose plinths are laid at midnight and whose streets are packed at morn; and here come tired youths and maids that feign to love or sin in tones like rusty razor blades to tunes like smitten tin.
Photography is only intuition, a perpetual interrogation - everything except a stage set.
Without music, life would be an error. The German imagines even God singing songs
Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairytale artist.
I say over and over again that I am just standing on the shoulders of so many who have set this path for me, and they may not be seen or recognized or have been given an opportunity to have a voice, but I'm here representing all of those dancers. Dance Theatre of Harlem Virginia Johnson, Tai Jimenez, Lauren Anderson.
When you use film, you use accidents, but there aren't any accidents with digital photography. I don't mind that it's easy. But I do mind that there is a sort of consensus with the camera and the subject and the light, and you look at something, and you photograph it, and you get what you see.
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