With poets, the choice of words is invariably more telling than the story line; that's why the best of them dread the thought of their biographies being written.
Interpretation
The choice of words in poetry conveys deeper truths than the narrative itself, making poets apprehensive about their life stories being revealed.
This quote by Joseph Brodsky suggests that poets prioritize the power and impact of their language over the stories they tell. The careful selection of words in poetry often reveals profound truths and emotions, which may not be adequately represented in a straightforward narrative of their lives. Poets may fear that the complexities and nuances of their work could be diminished or misunderstood if reduced to a biographical account.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the intricacies of poetic expression and how it differs from prose.
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.
Producing a series is like being Lewis and Clark: You know where you're going, you just don't know how you're going to get there. When people say, 'You should create a bible for your show,' I say, 'You don't want a bible. It'll prevent you from making discoveries along the way.' And that's what happened on 'The X-Files.'
Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world.
Artists can have greater access to reality; they can see patterns and details and connections that other people, distracted by the blur of life, might miss. Just sharing that truth can be a very powerful thing.
Writing begins in the body, it is the music of the body, and even if the words have meaning, can sometimes have meaning, the music of the words is where the meanings begin....Writing as a lesser form of dance.
The job of the critic is to report to us his moods.
Writers are only rarely likable.
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