The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
Don DelilloRead
The true life is not reducible to words spoken or written, not by anyone, ever.
Interpretation
True life transcends expression through words and cannot be fully captured by them.
Don Delillo's quote suggests that the essence of life and lived experiences cannot be fully encapsulated by language, whether spoken or written. It highlights the limitations of verbal communication in conveying the depth and richness of human existence, reminding us that there are aspects of life that remain ineffable and must be felt or lived rather than described.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about the limitations of literature in capturing real-life experiences.
The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
War is the form nostalgia takes when men are hard-pressed to say something good about their country.
American writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be more dangerous.
For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.
I used to think it was possible for an artist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory.
[I]n the American soul there is a lonely individual standing in a vast landscape. β¨He is either on a horse or driving a car, depending, and either way heβs carrying a gun. β¨This is one of the essential images in American mythology.
Faith is not opposed to reason, but it is sometimes opposed to feelings and appearances.
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.
I'm Nobody! Who are you? Are you β Nobody β too? Then there's a pair of us? Don't tell! they'd advertise β you know! How dreary β to be β Somebody! How public β like a Frog β To tell one's name β the livelong June β To an admiring Bog!
The story of the redemption will not stand examination. That man should redeem himself from the sin of eating an apple by committing a murder on Jesus Christ, is the strangest system of religion ever set up.
But suppose one doesn't quite know which one wants to put first. Suppose," said Harriet, falling back on words which were not her own, "suppose one is cursed with both a heart and a brain?" "You can usually tell," said Miss de Vine, "by seeing what kind of mistakes you make. I'm quite sure that one never makes fundamental mistakes about the thing one really wants to do. Fundamental mistakes arise out of lack of genuine interest. In my opinion, that is.
Any dispute in matters of taste usually results in a standoff.
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