Reading was like a drug, a dope. The novels created moods in which I lived for days.
Richard WrightRead
It made me love talk that sought answers to questions that could help nobody, that could only keep alive in me that enthralling sense of wonder and awe in the face of the drama of human feeling which is hidden by the external drama of life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a fascination with deep, existential questions that evoke a sense of wonder, transcending the superficial aspects of everyday life.
In this quote, Richard Wright expresses a profound appreciation for conversations that explore the complex and often hidden emotions that define the human experience. He suggests that such dialogues, rather than serving practical purposes, nurture a sense of awe in confronting the intricacies of human feelings, which often get overshadowed by the more mundane, external events of life.
Themes
WonderHuman FeelingsExistential QuestionsPhilosophyAwe
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on the nature of love in a philosophy class.
More from Richard Wright
All quotes →It had been only through books-at best, no more than vicarious cultural transfusions-that I had managaed to keep myself alive in a negatively vital way. Whenever my environment had failed to support or nourish me, I had clutched at books.
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I was not leaving the south to forget the south, but so that some day I might understand it
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Hunger has always been more or less at my elbow when I played, but now I began to wake up at night to find hunger standing at my bedside, staring at my gauntly.
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He had lived and acted on the assumption that he was alone, and now he saw that he had not been. What he had done made others suffer. No matter how much he would long for them to forget him, they would not be able to. His family was a part of him, not only in blood, but in spirit.
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I listened, vaguely knowing now that I had committed some awful wrong that I could not undo, that I had uttered words I could not recall even though I ached to nullify them, kill them, turn back time to the moment before I had talked so that I could have another chance to save myself.
Richard WrightRead
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