Poems, novels - these things belong to the nation, to the culture, and the people.
Interpretation
Artistic works reflect the collective identity and values of a culture and its people.
In this quote, Joseph Brodsky emphasizes that literary creations such as poems and novels are not just individual achievements but rather shared treasures that embody the spirit and heritage of a nation. They serve as cultural artifacts that connect people and shape their collective memory, speaking to the power of art in unifying and representing societal values.
In practice
During a speech at a literary festival to emphasize the importance of cultural representation in literature.
Basically, it's hard for me to assess myself, a hardship not only prompted by the immodesty of the enterprise, but because one is not capable of assessing himself, let alone his work. However, if I were to summarize, my main interest is the nature of time. That's what interests me most of all. What time can do to a man.
One always pulls the trigger out of self-interest and quotes history to avoid responsibility or pangs of conscience.
On the whole, infinity is a fairly palpable aspect of this business of publishing, if only because it extends a dead author's existence beyond the limits he envisioned, or provides a living author with a future he cannot measure. In other words, this business deals with the future which we all prefer to regard as unending.
The invention of ethical and political doctrines, which blossomed into our own social sciences, is a product of times when things appeared manageable. The same goes for the criticism of those doctrines, though as a voice from the past, this criticism proved prophetic.
Try not to pay attention to those who will try to make life miserable for you. There will be a lot of those - in the official capacity as well as the self-appointed.
To put it in plain language, Russia is that country where the name of a writer appears not on the cover of his book, but on the door of his prison cell.
Camera lies all the time. It’s all it does is lie, because when you choose this moment instead of this moment, when you… the moment you’ve made a choice, you’re lying about something larger. Lying is an ugly word. I don’t mean lying. But any artist picks and chooses what they want to paint or write about or say. Photographers are the same.
And its object is Art not power, sub-creation not domination and tyrannous re-forming of Creation.
When the bright angel dominates, out comes a great work of art, a Michelangelo David or a Beethoven symphony.
The story of Alexander Hamilton lends itself to hip-hop treatment. Hamilton's personality is driven and unrelenting, and the music has that same quality. The music and the man mirror each other.
I don't write because there's an audience. I write because there is literature.
I often use the same harmonies as pop music because the complexity of what I do is elsewhere.
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