Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a sense of the past.
Susan SontagRead
A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world.
Interpretation
What this quote means
A writer observes and reflects on the world around them.
In this quote, Susan Sontag emphasizes the role of a writer as an attentive observer of the world. By paying close attention to their surroundings, a writer is able to capture and convey deep truths and insights, turning ordinary experiences into profound narratives.
Themes
WriterAttentionWorldObservationCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
In a writing workshop, this quote could inspire aspiring authors to observe their surroundings for inspiration.
More from Susan Sontag
All quotes βScience fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster, which is one of the oldest subjects of art.
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Gide and I have attained such perfect intellectual communion that I experience the appropriate labor pains for every thought he gives birth to!
Susan SontagRead
Volume depends precisely on the writer's having been able to sit in a room every day, year after year, alone.
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In NY sensuality completely turns into sexuality - no objects for the senses to respond to, no beautiful river, houses, people. Awful smells of the street, and dirt... Nothing except eating, if that, and the frenzy of the bed.
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It hurts to love. It's like giving yourself to be flayed and knowing that at any moment the other person may just walk off with your skin.
Susan SontagRead
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An artist wears his work in place of wounds.
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A created thing is never invented and it is never true: it is always and ever itself.
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What has our culture lost in 1980 that the avant-garde had in 1890? Ebullience, idealism, confidence, the belief that there was plenty of territory to explore, and above all the sense that art, in the most disinterested and noble way, could find the necessary metaphors by which a radically changing culture could be explained to its inhabitants.
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All these actors who died before I was born, all the theaters and the artistic movements - all that stuff fills you up and makes you feel like you're the inheritor of all this information and of all its passion.
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I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art - and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.
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