Poetry is either something that lives like fire inside you -- like music to the musician or Marxism to the Communist -- or else it is nothing, an empty, formalized bore around which pedants can endlessly drone their notes and explanations.
Interpretation
Poetry should evoke deep emotions; otherwise, it becomes uninteresting and dry.
In this quote, Fitzgerald emphasizes the passionate and intrinsic nature of poetry, likening it to the internal fire that inspires musicians or political ideologies. He suggests that poetry loses its essence if it is merely a set of formal structures discussed by those who lack genuine appreciation for its emotional power.
In practice
During a literary discussion, one might quote Fitzgerald to emphasize the importance of genuine emotional connection in art.
Don't be so anxious about it,' she laughed. 'I'm not used to being loved. I wouldn't know what to do; I never got the trick of it.' She looked down at him, shy and fatigued. 'So here we are. I told you years ago that I had the makings of Cinderella.' He took her hand; she drew it back instinctively and then replaced it in his. 'Beg your pardon. Not even used to being touched. But I'm not afraid of you, if you stay quiet and don't move suddenly.
The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.
It was about then [1920] that I wrote a line which certain people will not let me forget: "She was a faded but still lovely woman of twenty-seven."
The words seemed to bite physically into Gatsby.
But you can love more than just one person, can't you?
A sudden gust of rain blew over them and then another - as if small liquid clouds were bouncing along the land. Lightning entered the sea far off and the air blew full of crackling thunder. The table cloths blew around the pillars. They blew and blew and blew. The flags twisted around the red chairs like live things, the banners were ragged, the corners of the table tore off through the burbling billowing ends of the cloths.
The poignancy of a photograph comes from looking back to a fleeting moment in a floating world. The transitoriness is what creates the sense of the sacred
I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.
Movies would be like a broad painted canvas... or a mystical process which cannot really be explained, like, 'What is electricity?' Along with the images that go on the screen, there's a corridor of dialogue that can happen through motion pictures, whether you're aware of it or not.
It doesn't matter if you use a box camera or you use a Leica; the important thing is what motivates you when you are photographing.
Anxious, inexperienced writers obey rules. Rebellious, unschooled writers break rules. Artists master the form.
On acting to daughter Isabella Rossellini: Keep it simple. Make a blank face and the music and the story will fill it in.
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