Dreams are shores where the ocean of spirit meets the land of matter. Dreams are beaches where the yet-to-be, the once-were, the will-never-be may walk awhile with the still-are.
David MitchellRead
How vulgar, this hankering after immortality, how vain, how false. Composers are merely scribblers of cave paintings. One writes music because winter is eternal and because, if one didn't, the wolves and blizzards would be at one's throat all the sooner.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote critiques the desire for immortality and suggests that creation is driven by necessity rather than vanity.
David Mitchell's quote reflects on the futility of striving for immortality, labeling the quest as vulgar and vain. He argues that composers, or artists in general, create not out of a desire for lasting fame but as a response to the harsh realities of life, particularly the inevitable passing of time and the struggles that accompany it. This perspective emphasizes the importance of creating for the sake of expression rather than for legacy.
Themes
ImmortalityCreationArtMusicVanityNecessity
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote when discussing the motivations behind artistic expression in a classroom setting.
More from David Mitchell
All quotes →The Revelation of Sonmi 451 To be is to be perceived, and so to know thyself is only possible through the eyes of the other. The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequences of our words and deeds, that go on and are pushing themselves throughout all time. - Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.
David MitchellRead
…and there, in the background, the sky’s sediment had sunk to a place where all the woe of the words ‘I am’ dissolved into blue peace. He said it. ‘The ocean.
David MitchellRead
. . .my dreams are the single unpredictable factor in my zoned days and nights. Nobody allots them, or censors them. Dreams are all I have ever truly owned.
David MitchellRead
My life amounts to no more than one drop in a limitless ocean. Yet what is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?
David MitchellRead
Human beings need to watch out for reasonless niceness too. It's never reasonless and its reason's not usually nice.
David MitchellRead
Similar quotes
The great things in life are what they seem to be. And for that reason, strange as it may sound to you, often are very difficult to interpret (understand). Great passions are for the great of souls. Great events can only be seen by people who are on a level with them. We think we can have our visions for nothing. We cannot. Even the finest and most self-sacrificing visions have to be paid for. Strangely enough, that is what makes them fine.
Oscar WildeRead
A functioning police state needs no police.
William S. BurroughsRead
The Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences.
SengcanRead
Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
But now that I am old, moving every year closer to the end of my life, I also feel closer to the beginning. And I remember everything that happened that day becasue it has happened many times in my life. The same innocence, trust, and restlessness; the wonder, fear, and lonliness. How I lost myself. I remember all these things. And tonight, on the fifteenth day of the eighth moon, I also remember what I asked the Moon Lady so long ago. I wished to be found.
Amy TanRead
I've been bothered about time generally and our tripartite division of time into past, present, and future. I think I know what the past is, and I think I know what future is, but I'm really not comfortable with the notion of present.
Martin SeligmanRead