Memory is a code to who we are, a collection of not just dates and facts but also of epic emotional struggles, epiphanies, transformations.
David GrannRead
I think you get into trouble as an author and a journalist when, rather than owning the gaps, you try to elide them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Acknowledge the gaps in your knowledge instead of pretending they don't exist.
David Grann emphasizes the importance of acknowledging the limitations and gaps in one's knowledge as a writer and journalist. Instead of trying to hide or gloss over these gaps, embracing them allows for greater authenticity and truthfulness in storytelling, ultimately leading to better understanding and clearer communication with the audience.
Themes
KnowledgeGapsAuthenticityStorytellingTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on writing, this quote can be used to encourage participants to embrace vulnerability in their storytelling.
More from David Grann
All quotes βYou want the story to be about something, have some deeper meaning, but there is also an emotional, almost instinctual, element, which is, does this story seize some part of you and compel you to get to the bottom of it?
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In Brazil, the history of the interaction between blancos and indios - whites and Indians - often reads like an extended epitaph. Tribes were wiped out by disease and massacres; languages and songs were obliterated.
David GrannRead
There's a tendency when we write history to do it with the power of hindsight and then assume almost god-like knowledge that nobody living through history has.
David GrannRead
Heroes have always served as a reflection of their times, a template of who we are and what we want to be.
David GrannRead
The Osage have this lovely phrase: 'Travelers in the Mist.' It was the term for part of an Osage clan that would take the lead whenever the tribe was venturing into unfamiliar realms. And, in a way, we are all travelers in the mist. The challenge is that, as writers, we sometimes want to ignore this murkiness, or we want to write around it.
David GrannRead
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If we know exactly where we're going, exactly how to get there, and exactly what we'll see along the way, we won't learn anything.
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I'll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there's evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
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The real meaning of the spoken word has to be demonstrated by practical deeds
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