Really good books need a chaos element: something weird or inexplicable.
Michel FaberRead
Total oblivion is the fate of almost everything in this world. I'm very likely to suffer that same fate; my work will probably not be remembered, and if any of it is, if any of those novels is fated to be one of those novels that is still being read 50 or 100 years after it was written, I've probably already written it.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the inevitability of being forgotten and the fleeting nature of legacy.
Michel Faber's quote explores the idea that most of human effort and creation will eventually fade into obscurity over time. He suggests that while he acknowledges the likelihood of his own work being forgotten, he also believes that if any of his novels are to endure, they have likely already been written. This contemplation invites a deeper discussion about the significance of our contributions and the transient nature of fame and recognition.
In practice
This quote is perfect for a literary discussion on the nature of art and immortality.
Really good books need a chaos element: something weird or inexplicable.
Of course I know that the twins are only words on a page, and I'm certainly not the sort of writer who talks to his characters or harbours any illusions about the creative process. But at the same time, I think it's juvenile and arrogant when literary writers compulsively remind their readers that the characters aren't real. People know that already. The challenge is to make an intelligent reader suspend disbelief, to seduce them into the reality of a narrative.
There are truths on this side of the Pyrenees which are falsehoods on the other
Why was the amendment, expressly declaring the right of the people to exclude slavery, voted down? Plainly enough now, the adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision.
Since trifles make the sum of human things, And half our misery from our foibles springs.
O, to be sure, we laugh less and play less and wear uncomfortable disguises like adults, but beneath the costume is the child we always are, whose needs are simple, whose daily life is still best described by fairy tales.
So long as large sums of money are involved - and they are bound to be if drugs are illegal - it is literally impossible to stop the traffic, or even to make a serious reduction in its scope.
Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning but without understanding.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.