A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.
Interpretation
Poets illuminate truths and provoke thought, challenging the status quo.
This quote by Salman Rushdie emphasizes the role of a poet as a crucial figure in society, tasked with articulating the inexpressible and confronting untruths. By engaging in arguments and sparking discussions, poets not only reflect the world but also influence its direction, urging people to remain awake and aware rather than complacent.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of literature, one might quote this to illustrate the power of poetry.
I've been fascinated by Machiavelli since I was very young. I've always felt that he had a bad rap from history, and that he was actually a person quite unlike what we now think of as Machiavellian. He was a republican. He disliked totalitarian government.
Killing people because you don't like their ideas - it's a bad thing.
faith without doubt is addiction
I am clearly vulnerable to these more passionate and volatile unstable relationships. I am trying to not be so vulnerable.
In India, as elsewhere in our darkening world, religion is the poison in the blood. Where religion intervenes, mere innocence is no excuse. Yet we go on skating around this issue, speaking of religion in the fashionable language of 'respect.' What is there to respect in any of this, or in any of the crimes now being committed almost daily around the world in religion's dreaded name?
Reality is a question of perspective; the further you get from the past, the more concrete and plausible it seems - but as you approach the present, it inevitably seems more and more incredible.
Writing is a solitary experience. I'm extremely superstitious. If I talk about the book or name the title out loud before finishing, I feel the energy I need to write will be drained. It's so intimate, I can't even share it with my wife.
As an actor, the second and last ones were interesting for me. Because those parts had the most change in playing someone who was both light and dark, sort of Jekyl and Hyde.
My first memory is of the brightness of light β light all around.
I'm not a classical player. I don't want to be a classical player. I love to improvise, because things happen that never happen anywhere else.
The Creator made Italy from designs by Michelangelo.
As ballerinas, we don't use our voices. Our voice is the body and the movement quality.
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