I would rather dance as a ballerina, though faultily, than as a flawless clown.
Interpretation
It is better to express oneself authentically, even imperfectly, than to conform perfectly to mediocrity.
This quote by Margaret Atwood emphasizes the value of being true to oneself, even if it means making mistakes or not being perfect. It contrasts the beauty of individual expression and creativity, represented by the ballerina, with the hollowness of conformity and superficiality, embodied by the flawless clown. Atwood suggests that the pursuit of genuine passion and artistry, despite its imperfections, is far more worthwhile than a polished facade that lacks authenticity.
In practice
In a discussion about art, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of personal expression.
If I am good enough and quiet enough, perhaps after all they will let me go; but it’s not easy being quiet and good, it’s like hanging on to the edge of a bridge when you’ve already fallen over; you don’t seem to be moving, just dangling there, and yet it is taking all your strength.
I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off.
What else can I do? Once you've gone this far you aren't fit for anything else. Something happens to your mind. You're overqualified, overspecialized, and everybody knows it. Nobody in any other game would be crazy enough to hire me. I wouldn't even make a good ditch-digger, I'd start tearing apart the sewer-system, trying to pick-axe and unearth all those chthonic symbols - pipes, valves, cloacal conduits... No, no. I'll have to be a slave in the paper-mines for all time.
We love each other, that’s true whatever it means, but we aren’t good at it; for some it’s a talent, for others only an addiction.
I've learned quite a lot, over the years, by avoiding what I was supposed to be learning.
Knowing too much about other people puts you in their power, they have a claim on you, you are forced to understand their reasons for doing things and then you are weakened.
And I was afraid. She frightens me because she can knock me down with a word. Because she does not know that writing is walking on a dizzying silence setting one word after the other on emptiness. Writing is miraculous and terrifying like the flight of a bird who has no wings but flings itself out and only gets wings by flying.
The body is your instrument in dance, but your art is outside that creature, the body.
I paint people, not because of what they are like, not exactly in spite of what they are like, but how they happen to be.
I could imagine at a certain age, when I have no vocal cords left, that I would find a young man who could sing my parts for me. But I don't see why I would stop.
To the man with an ear for verbal delicacies- the man who searches painfully for the perfect word, and puts the way of saying a thing above the thing said - there is in writing the constant joy of sudden discovery, of happy accident.
Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art.
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