If certain books are to be termed 'immigrant fiction,' what do we call the rest? Native fiction? Puritan fiction? This distinction doesn't agree with me.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
I feel as though I've gotten to a point where I don't really want to set a book in any real place ever again.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire to transcend reality in writing, favoring imagination over specific settings.
In this quote, Jhumpa Lahiri reflects on her creative evolution as a writer, indicating a shift away from depicting real, tangible locations in her stories. This perspective suggests a yearning for artistic freedom, where the focus might shift towards emotions, themes, and characters, rather than being constrained by actual places.
In practice
In a writing workshop, I might use this quote to inspire participants to embrace their creative freedoms.
If certain books are to be termed 'immigrant fiction,' what do we call the rest? Native fiction? Puritan fiction? This distinction doesn't agree with me.
When I sit down to write, I don't think about writing about an idea or a given message. I just try to write a story which is hard enough.
When I am experiencing a complex story or novel, the broader planes, and also details, tend to fall away.
I think each time you start a story or novel or whatever, you are absolutely at the bottom of the ladder all over again. It doesn't matter what you've done before.
The sky was different, without color, taut and unforgiving. But the water was the most unforgiving thing, nearly black at times, cold enough, I knew, to kill me, violent enough to break me apart. The waves were immense, battering rocky beaches without sand. The farther I went, the more desolate it became, more than any place I'd been, but for this very reason the landscape drew me, claimed me as nothing had in a long time.
On the technical side, I hope that my writing is evolving and maturing, ripening, deepening.
It doubles your perception, to write from the point of view of someone you're not.
until only infinity remained of beauty
I like using animals because they help suspend my reader's disbelief. We have certain ideas about dentists. We don't have many ideas about rhinoceros dentists.
Art is long, and time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave.
I need scarcely observe that a poem deserves its title only inasmuch as it excites, by elevating the soul. The value of the poem is in the ratio of this elevating excitement.
The labor into which a heart has poured its whole love--where will it have its say, to excite and inspire, and when?
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