I want work that, possessing as thin a membrane as possible between life and art, foregrounds the question of how the writer solves being alive.
Interpretation
This quote expresses the desire for art that closely reflects the complexities of real life, emphasizing the writer's struggle with existence.
David Shields highlights the intricate relationship between art and life, suggesting that true artistic expression should minimize barriers between the two. The quote reflects a philosophical inquiry into how writers navigate their experiences of being alive, prompting deeper reflections on the nature of creativity and existence.
In practice
In a panel discussion on contemporary literature, one might quote this to highlight the importance of authenticity in writing.
I'm interested in non-fiction, but a form of it which is very badly behaved, which doesn't define itself as straight-ahead journalism or memoir. It blurs boundaries, plays fast and loose with the truth - not to be silly, whimsical or lazy, but to get greater purchase on what it feels like to be alive.
The considerations of a corporation, especially now, have nothing to do with art or music.
We've been fighting our whole lives to say we're just human beings like everyone else. When we start separating ourselves in our work, that doesn't help the cause. I've heard it for years: 'How do you feel being a black filmmaker?' I'm not a black filmmaker, I'm a filmmaker. I'm a black man, I have black children. But I'm just a filmmaker.
All books can be indecent books, though recent books are bolder._x000D_ _x000D_ For filth, I'm glad to say, is in the mind of the beholder._x000D_ _x000D_ When correctly viewed, everything is lewd._x000D_ _x000D_ I could tell you things about Peter Pan_x000D_ _x000D_ and the Wizard of OZ, there's a dirty old man!
Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.
We may feel bitterly how little our poems can do in the face of seemingly out-of-control technological power and seemingly limitless corporate greed, yet it has always been true that poetry can break isolation, show us to ourselves when we are outlawed or made invisible, remind us of beauty where no beauty seems possible, remind us of kinship where all is represented as separation.
One has a nose. The nose scents and it chooses. An artist is simply a kind of pig snouting truffles.
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