In apartments and cottages, on the street and in the train... I listen... More and more, I turn into one large ear, always turning to another person.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
Why do I write? I have been called a writer of catastrophes, but that isn't true. I am always looking for words of love. Hate will not save us. Only love.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The essence of writing lies in the exploration and expression of love, rather than despair or hatred.
In this quote, Svetlana Alexievich emphasizes the transformative power of love in writing and life. While she has been labeled a writer of catastrophes, she clarifies that her true intent is to seek and convey messages of love, suggesting that love is a fundamental solution to the challenges we face, and that negativity and hate will not lead to salvation or resolution.
Themes
LoveWritingNegativitySalvationCatastrophes
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on the importance of literature, one might refer to this quote to highlight the role of love in human expression.
More from Svetlana Alexievich
All quotes βThe subjects I wanted to write about - the mystery of the human soul, evil - didn't interest newspapers, and news reporting bored me.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
'Women's' war has its own colors, its own smells, its own lighting, and its own range of feelings. There are no heroes and incredible feats; there are simply people who are busy doing inhumanly human things.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
There is no need to give in to the compromise that totalitarian regimes always count on.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
I've been searching for a genre that would be most adequate to my vision of the world to convey how my ear hears and my eyes see life. I tried this and that, and finally, I chose a genre where human voices speak for themselves. But I don't just record a dry history of events and facts; I'm writing a history of human feelings.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
From the point of view of art, the butcher and the victim are equal as people. You need to see the people.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
Similar quotes
A lover exists only in fragments, a dozen or so if the romance is new, a thousand if we're married to him, and out of those fragments our heart constructs an entire person. What we each create, since whatever is missing is filled by our imagination, is the person we wish him to be. The less we know him, of course, the more we love him. And that's why we always remember that first rapturous night when he was a stranger, and why this rapture returns only when he's dead.
Andrew Sean GreerRead
Dogs are the closest we come to knowing the divine love of God on this side of eternity.
Anne LamottRead
Your hair is winter fire January embers My heart burns there, too.
Stephen KingRead
Boys and girls should be taught respect for each other's liberty... and that jealousy and possessiveness kill love.
Bertrand RussellRead
I held her, he wanted to say, and if I knew for certain that all it would take to hold her again would be to die, then I couldn't raise the gun to my head fast enough.
Dennis LehaneRead
You believe that a lover will bring you love, but it is your love that will bring you a lover.
Alan CohenRead