Maybe that’s enlightenment enough: to know that there is no final resting place of the mind; no moment of smug clarity. Perhaps wisdom...is realizing how small I am, and unwise, and how far I have yet to go. -Anthony Bourdain
Anthony BourdainRead
In this way, writers are indeed, as Henry Miller suggested, traitors to the human race. We may turn a light on inequity, injustice, and oppression from time to time, but we regularly kill what we love in insidious fashion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Writers often expose societal issues but may also harm their own passions and loves in the process.
This quote by Anthony Bourdain reflects on the dual nature of writing, where writers illuminate important social issues such as inequity and injustice, yet simultaneously may undermine their personal loves and passions. This internal conflict highlights the complex relationship writers have with their craft and the sacrifices they sometimes make in pursuit of truth and expression.
Themes
WritingSacrificeTruthInjusticePassion
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used during a writing workshop to discuss the challenges writers face.
More from Anthony Bourdain
All quotes →My brain and body and nervous system, they see a plane ride, a long plane trip, as an opportunity to sleep with nothing coming in, nothing to do. I just go offline the minute I'm on the plane.
Anthony BourdainRead
I'm very proud of the Rome episode of 'No Reservations' because it violated all the conventional wisdom about making television. You're never, ever supposed to do a food or travel show in black and white.
Anthony BourdainRead
The notion that before you even set out to go to Thailand, you say, 'I'm not interested,' or you're unwilling to try things that people take so personally and are so proud of and so generous with, I don't understand that, and I think it's rude. You're at Grandma's house, you eat what Grandma serves you.
Anthony BourdainRead
If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel – as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them – wherever you go.
Anthony BourdainRead
I feel that if Jacques Pepin shows you how to make an omelet, the matter is pretty much settled. That's God talking.
Anthony BourdainRead
Similar quotes
I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That's art to me.
Maya LinRead
What I mean is sometimes, for an artist, chronic pain can be a gift.
Chuck PalahniukRead
When I attack a role, be it TV, film or stage, the first thing I say is, I don't want to know anything. If it's good I don't want to hear it; if it's bad I don't want to hear it. The only thing either thing can do is distract me. I like to stay focused
Cicely TysonRead
Well, yes. I believe that children's souls are the inheritors of historical memory from previous generations. It's just that as they grow older and experience the everyday world that memory sinks lower and lower. I feel I need to make a film that reaches down to that level. If I could do that I would die happy.
Hayao MiyazakiRead
Making art is complicated because the categories are always changing. You just have to make your own art, and whatever categories it falls into will come later.
Frank StellaRead
I've never made any picture, good or bad, without paying for it in emotional turmoil.
W. Eugene SmithRead