I believe that nothing comes of nothing, even in Shakespeare. I wanted to know where he got the matter he was working with and what he did with that matter.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the principle that creativity and ideas stem from existing sources and influences.
Stephen Greenblatt reflects on the nature of creativity, suggesting that all artistic work is derived from pre-existing materials and ideas. He acknowledges that even the greatest works, such as those of Shakespeare, are built upon what has come before, prompting curiosity about the origins and transformations of creative thought.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the nature of creativity in a literature class.
I've been at this for 40 years. And, as an academic, I've been content with relatively small audiences, with the thought that the audience I long for will find its way eventually to what I have written, provided that what I have written is good enough.
What I wanted to do was to get that sense of being in touch with this lost world while holding onto what draws readers and audiences there in the first place.
What matters here are the works - finally without them his life would be uninteresting. What matters, that is, are the astonishing things that he left behind. If we can get the life in relation to the works, then it can take off.
The exercise of reason is not available only to specialists; it is accessible to everyone.
Compared to the unleashed forces of warfare and of faith, Mount Vesuvius was kinder to the legacy of antiquity.
The greatest obstacle to pleasure is not pain; it is delusion.
Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination - everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.
...his job was the very least important part of his life, never to be mentioned except in irony.
All humanity is one undivided and indivisible family. I cannot detach myself from the wickedest soul.
All true theology has an evangelistic thrust, and all true evangelism is theology in action.
Sometimes we exclude things in ourselves in order to be like everybody else around us-our ethnicity, our social backgrounds, our ideas. What kind of world is it that will not allow me to be myself, and is it really good for me to be there? What part of me will die a slow death if I stay?
Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals.
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