No iron can pierce the human heart as chillingly as a full stop placed at the right time.
Isaac BabelRead
The orange sky is rolling across the sky like a severed head, gentle light glimmers in the ravines among the clouds, the banners of the sunset are fluttering above our heads. The stench of yesterday’s blood and slaughtered horses drips into the evening chill.
Interpretation
This quote paints a vivid and contrasting picture of beauty and horror in the natural world.
Isaac Babel's quote juxtaposes the serene imagery of a sunset with the grim realities of violence and loss. The use of striking visuals, likening the sunset to a severed head, evokes a sense of both awe and repulsion, highlighting the complexities of life where beauty and brutality coexist, and prompting reflection on the scars left by past conflicts.
In practice
In a poetry reading focused on the duality of life and death.
I used to tremble from nerves so badly that the only way I could hold my head steady was to lower my chin practically to my chest and look up at Bogie. That was the beginning of The Look.
As an actor, you are always looking for roles that will challenge you, and when I came upon Aung San Suu Kyi, it wasn't just about that but also about stepping into the shoes of someone who means so much to millions of people.
The novel I am constantly writing is always the same one, and it might be described as a variously sliced-up or torn-apart book of myself.
I always had a knack for improvisation. I can write down the notes I play, but never really had a proper academic musical background. I suppose I'm blessed and cursed by the fact I have that freedom.
Art is longing. You never arrive, but you keep going in the hope that you will.
Poems come from ordinary experiences and objects, I think. Out of memory - a dress I lent my daughter on her way back to college; a newspaper photograph of war; a breast self-exam; the tooth fairy; Calvinist parents who beat up their children; a gesture of love; seeing oneself naked over age 50 in a set of bright hotel bathroom mirrors.
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