The poet is one who is able to keep the fresh vision of the child alive.
Anais NinRead
I gathered poets around me and we all wrote beautiful erotica. As we were condemned to focus only on sensuality, we had violent explosions of poetry. Writing erotica became a road to sainthood rather than to debauchery.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that writing erotica can be a profound and artistic expression rather than merely a depiction of debauchery.
Anais Nin reflects on the idea that exploring sensuality through poetry allows writers to tap into deeper emotions and creativity, transforming what is often viewed as debauchery into a sacred form of art. The act of gathering poets to write erotica highlights a communal journey towards understanding and celebrating human desire, illustrating how such expressions can elevate the experience of art and transcend societal judgments.
Themes
EroticaPoetrySensualityArtistic ExpressionBeautyCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In an art class discussing the intersection of eroticism and literature, this quote can spark a debate on the nature of sensuality.
More from Anais Nin
All quotes →Anxiety is love's greatest killer, because it is like the stranglehold of the drowning.
Anais NinRead
We celebrate peace. Yet we pay no attention to the ways of curing aggression in human beings. And when one sees in psychoanalysis hostility disappearing as people conquer their fears, one wonders if the cure is not there.
Anais NinRead
The impetus to grow and live intensely is so powerful in me I cannot resist it. I will work, I will love my husband, but I will fulfill myself.
Anais NinRead
We have been poisoned by fairy tales.
Anais NinRead
But I lie. I embellish. My words are not deep enough. They disguise, they conceal. I will not rest until I have told of my descent into a sensuality which was as dark, as magnificent, as wild, as my moments of mystic creation have been dazzling, ecstatic, exalted.
Anais NinRead
Similar quotes
I write from real life. I am an unrepentant eavesdropper and a collector of stories. I record bits of overheard dialogue.
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieRead
I can't tell you where a poem comes from, what it is, or what it is for: nor can any other man. The reason I can't tell you is that the purpose of a poem is to go past telling, to be recognised by burning.
A. R. AmmonsRead
An ecstasy is a thing that will not go into words; it feels like music.
Mark TwainRead
Real people speak in my books about the main events of the age, such as the war, the Chernobyl disaster, and the downfall of a great empire.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
On the whole, actors shout when they don't know what they're doing, trying to make an impact.
Ian MckellenRead
It's so easy to call something a Jewish story or a gay story or a woman's story. Aesthetically, if a story is not universal, it has failed. Your obligation is to the story. One rule creatively, and emotionally, is its universality.
Nathan EnglanderRead