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
What this quote means
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.
Themes
WritingImaginationCreativityFreedomStorytelling
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, I might use this quote to inspire participants to embrace their creative freedoms.
More from Jhumpa Lahiri
All quotes →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.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
When I am experiencing a complex story or novel, the broader planes, and also details, tend to fall away.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
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.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
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.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
On the technical side, I hope that my writing is evolving and maturing, ripening, deepening.
Jhumpa LahiriRead
Similar quotes
For Poesy alone can tell her dreams, With the fine spell of words alone can save Imagination from the sable charm And dumb enchantment. Who alive can say, ‘Thou art no Poet may’st not tell thy dreams?’ Since every man whose soul is not a clod Hath visions, and would speak, if he had loved And been well nurtured in his mother tongue. Whether the dream now purpos’d to rehearse Be poet’s or fanatic’s will be known When this warm scribe my hand is in the grave.
John KeatsRead
Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.
John UpdikeRead
We, as film-makers, are privileged. We can make people cry or laugh. We can make them think and feel. It is a great privilege and a great responsibility.
Haskell WexlerRead
Photography is about finding out what can happen in the frame. When you put four edges around some facts, you change those facts.
Garry WinograndRead
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
William ShakespeareRead
Specificity is what makes good storytelling, and good storytelling is what makes money, and making money is then what encourages new producers to invest in different stories about Asians.
Constance WuRead