To be popular one must be a mediocrity.
Oscar WildeRead
Well, I write in exile because I cannot return to my country, so I have no choice but to see myself as an exiled writer.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the experience of being an outsider and the unique perspective it offers to a writer.
Guillermo Cabrera Infante's quote illustrates the struggle of a writer who is physically separated from their homeland, suggesting that this exile profoundly shapes their identity and creative expression. It implies that distance from one's cultural roots can lead to an enriched, albeit painful, experience of artistry, where the writer must navigate their identity through the lens of longing and separation.
Themes
ExileWriterIdentityHomelandPerspective
In practice
Example use cases
In a literary event discussing the impact of exile on creativity.
Similar quotes
Let our lives be in accordance with our convictions of right, each striving to carry out our principles.
Lucretia MottRead
He who made thee is made in thee. He is made in thee through whom you were made.... Give milk, O mother, to him who is our food; give milk to the bread that comes down from heaven.
Saint AugustineRead
Value is the most invincible and impalpable of ghosts, and comes and goes unthought of, while the visible and dense matter remains as it was.
William Stanley JevonsRead
One side of me is very busy paying attention to the details of life, the humanity of people, catching the street voices, the middle-class, upper-middle-class secret lives of Turks. The other side is interested in history and class and gender, trying to get all of society in a very realistic way.
Orhan PamukRead
I expect we shall be told, that the Militia of the country is its natural bulwark, and would be at all times equal to the national defence...The facts, which from our own experience forbid a reliance of this kind, are too recent to permit us to be the dupes of such a suggestion.
Alexander HamiltonRead