All the time, I've felt that life is a wager and that I probably was getting more out of leading a bohemian existence as a writer than I would have if I didn't.
Interpretation
Life involves risks, and embracing a creative lifestyle can yield greater rewards than playing it safe.
In this quote, Christopher Hitchens reflects on the notion of life as a gamble, suggesting that living a bohemian lifestyle as a writer offers richer experiences and fulfillment. He implies that the risks and uncertainties inherent in such a life are preferable to a more conventional existence, as they ultimately provide more meaning and depth to one's life journey.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about embracing creativity and taking risks in life.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.
Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way — because it’s had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But you’ve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
I play by my own rules so please think twice before you step into my life.
Life is like a garden, you reap what you sow
My dad had this incredible kindness that oozed through every part of his body. He had the ability to look at life positively in spite of what he went through. He was a Holocaust survivor. When he was 15-1/2 years old, he was liberated from the Dachau Concentration Camp by American soldiers who risked a lot to save people they had never met.
So, this is my life. And I want you to know that I am both happy and sad and I'm still trying to figure out how that could be.
I see it every day: People trying to create a home that somebody else tells them they should have. I don't care if it's a magazine or a bossy friend - when somebody says, 'This is what's elegant, this is what's trendy,' if it doesn't represent you, you're not going to be happy.
We're all travelers in this world. From the sweet grass to the packing house. Birth 'til death. We travel between the eternities.
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