To shift the structure of a sentence alters the meaning of that sentence, as definitely and inflexibly as the position of a camera alters the meaning of the object photographed.
Joan DidionRead
The West begins where the average annual rainfall drops below twenty inches. Water is important to people who do not have it, and the same is true of control.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Water scarcity highlights the importance of control over resources and power dynamics.
Joan Didion's quote reflects on how essential water is to human life and how its scarcity can influence social and political power. By indicating that the West begins where rainfall is scarce, Didion emphasizes the relationship between natural resources and human governance, suggesting that control over such resources defines both geographical and sociopolitical boundaries.
Themes
WaterControlScarcityResourcesPower
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in an environmental speech to highlight the importance of water resources.
More from Joan Didion
All quotes βThe truth is, it's easier for me to write than talk... to express the state I'm in at any time.
Joan DidionRead
Memories are what you no longer want to remember.
Joan DidionRead
It was clear, for example, in 1988 that the political process had already become perilously remote from the electorate it was meant to represent.
Joan DidionRead
I mean maybe I was holding all the aces, but what was the game?
Joan DidionRead
Do not whine... Do not complain. Work harder. Spend more time alone.
Joan DidionRead
Similar quotes
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
James MadisonRead
Beauty is the brilliance of truth.
Saint AugustineRead
The Olympic Movement is a 20th century religion. Where there is no injustice of caste, of race, of family, of wealth.
Avery BrundageRead
Indignation must always be the answer to indignity. Reality is not destiny.
Eduardo GaleanoRead
We have decommissioned natural selection and must now look deep within ourselves and decide what we wish to become.
E. O. WilsonRead
What a thing is and what it means are not separate, the former being physical and the latter mental as we are accustomed to believe.
James J. GibsonRead