One can acquire everything in solitude except character.
StendhalRead
Politics in a literary work, is like a gun shot in the middle of a concert, something vulgar, and however, something which is impossible to ignore.
Interpretation
Politics disrupts the beauty of art, much like an unexpected gunshot disrupts a concert.
In this quote, Stendhal illustrates the jarring presence of politics within art, likening it to a disruptive and violent sound amid a harmonious performance. This highlights the tension between beauty and reality, suggesting that while political themes may seem out of place in artistic expressions, they demand our attention and reflection, regardless of their incongruity.
In practice
In a speech on the intersection of creativity and activism, one might quote Stendhal to illustrate the unavoidable presence of political themes in the arts.
One can acquire everything in solitude except character.
True love makes the thought of death frequent, easy, without terrors; it merely becomes the standard of comparison, the price one would pay for many things.
In love, unlike most other passions, the recollection of what you have had and lost is always better than what you can hope for in the future.
A very small degree of hope is sufficient to cause the birth of love.
If you don't love me, it does not matter, anyway I can love for both of us.
Pleasure is often spoiled by describing it.
Being an actress, I find myself people-watching and I can be quite shy.
Every one of my books had killed me a little more.
I used to tremble from nerves so badly that the only way I could hold my head steady was to lower my chin practically to my chest and look up at Bogie. That was the beginning of The Look.
You love all your characters, even the ridiculous ones. You have to on some level; they're your weird creations in some kind of way. I don't even know how you approach the process of conceiving the characters if in a sense you hated them. It's just absurd.
My eyes are vague blue, like the sky, and change all the time; they are indiscriminate but fleeting, entirely specific and disloyal, so that no one trusts me. I am always looking away. Or again at something after it has given me up.
Any time you get two people in a room who disagree about anything, the time of day, there is a scene to be written. That's what I look for.
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