Writing is my passion. It is a way to experience the ecstatic. The root understanding of the word ecstasy—“to stand outside”—comes to me in those moments when I am immersed so deeply in the act of thinking and writing that everything else, even flesh, falls away.
Interpretation
Writing allows for deep emotional and intellectual immersion, transcending the physical self.
This quote by Bell Hooks emphasizes the profound connection an individual can experience through the act of writing. It highlights how writing serves as a means of escape and profound exploration, where one can transcend physical limitations and immerse themselves in their thoughts and emotions, achieving a state of ecstasy and enlightenment.
In practice
Using this quote in a workshop on creative writing to inspire participants.
Privilege is not in and of itself bad; what matters is what we do with privilege. I want to live in a world where all women have access to education, and all women can earn PhD’s, if they so desire. Privilege does not have to be negative, but we have to share our resources and take direction about how to use our privilege in ways that empower those who lack it.
Self-love is the foundation of our loving practice. Without it our other efforts to love fail. Giving ourselves love we provide our inner being with the opportunity to have the unconditional love we may have always longed to receive from someone else.
While privacy strengthens all our bonds, secrecy weakens and damages connection. Lerner points out that we do not usually "know the emotional costs of keeping a secret" until the truth is disclosed. Usually, secrecy involves lying. And lying is always the setting for potential betrayal and violation of trust.
When we only name the problem, when we state complaint without a constructive focus or resolution, we take hope away. In this way critique can become merely an expression of profound cynicism, which then works to sustain dominator culture.
Once you do away with the idea of people as fixed, static entities, then you see that people can change, and there is hope.
I still think it's important for people to have a sharp, ongoing critique of marriage in patriarchal society — because once you marry within a society that remains patriarchal, no matter how alternative you want to be within your unit, there is still a culture outside you that will impose many, many values on you whether you want them to or not.
I developed a passion for the Middle Ages the same way some people develop a passion for coconuts.
You have to create the show anew, and find it anew, on a nightly basis.
I am more a friend of art than a producer of painting.
Poetry is the only life got, the only work done, the only pure product and free labor of man, performed only when he has put all the world under his feet, and conquered the last of his foes.
The great thing about a record is it frees your imagination; it gives your eyes a rest and lets your mind wander. There's the special thing that each record can mean a different thing to every person listening to it.
Some of you been trying to write rhymes for years,_x000D_ _x000D_ But weak ideas irritate my ears._x000D_ _x000D_ Is this the best that you can make?_x000D_ _x000D_ Cause if not, and you got more...I'll wait.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.