All novelists should live in two different worlds: a real one and an unreal one.
John FowlesRead
You wish to be liked. I wish simply to be. One day you will know what that means, perhaps. And you will smile. Not against me. But with me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the difference between seeking validation from others and simply existing in one's true self.
In this quote, John Fowles highlights the contrast between the desire for external approval and the pursuit of authentic existence. The speaker suggests that true contentment comes from being oneself rather than striving for the validation of others. Over time, the listener may come to understand the deeper significance of this perspective, leading to a shared sense of joy and connection.
Themes
AuthenticitySelfValidationConnectionContentment
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about self-acceptance and authenticity.
More from John Fowles
All quotes →There are many reasons why novelists write, but they all have one thing in common - a need to create an alternative world.
John FowlesRead
I love making, I love doing. I love being to the full, I love everything which is not sitting and watching and copying and dead at heart.
John FowlesRead
Do you know that every great thing in the history of art and every beautiful thing in life is actually what you call nasty or has been caused by feelings that you would call nasty? By passion, by love, by hatred, by truth. Do you know that?
John FowlesRead
The bowed head, the buried face. She is silent, she will never speak, never forgive, never reach a hand, never leave this frozen present tense. All waits, suspended. Suspended the autumn trees, the autumn sky, anonymous people. A blackbird, poor fool, sings out of season from the willows by the lake. A flight of pigeons over the houses; fragments of freedom, hazard, an anagram made flesh. And somewhere the stinging smell of burning leaves.
John FowlesRead
It came to me…that I didn’t want to be anywhere else in the world at that moment, that what I was feeling at that moment justified all I had been through, because all I had been through was my being there. I was experiencing…a new self-acceptance, a sense that I had to be this mind and this body, its vices and its virtues, and that I had no other chance or choice.
John FowlesRead
Similar quotes
A sick body with a good heart is more beneficial to future lives than a fit, healthy body that is used for self-cherishing.
Thubten Zopa RinpocheRead
I've crossed these sands many times," said one of the camel drivers one night. "But the desert is so huge, and the horizons so distant, that they make a person feel small, and as if he should remain silent." The boy understood intuitively what he meant, even without ever having set foot in the desert before. Whenever he saw the sea, or a fire, he fell silent, impressed by their elemental force.
Paulo CoelhoRead
We have become 99 percent money mad. The method of living at home modestly and within our income, laying a little by systematically for the proverbial rainy day which is due to come, can almost be listed among the lost arts.
George Washington CarverRead
We think that - as kids, you know - that kids make up stories and live in a sort of fictional place, but that, as grown-ups, we tell the truth and live in fact. But, of course, the reality is we take the facts that we know, and then we fill in all the blanks.
Claire MessudRead
Everything that depends on the action of nature is by nature as good as it can be.
AristotleRead
Fame is not just. She never finely or discriminatingly praises, but coarsely hurrahs.
Henry David ThoreauRead