Most writers tend to get worse rather than better. I'm determined to be one that gets better.
Edmund WhiteRead
When we are young... we often experience things in the present with a nostalgia-in-advance, but we seldom guess what we will truly prize years from now.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote highlights how our youthful experiences are often viewed with a premature sense of nostalgia, making it difficult to recognize what will truly hold value in the future.
Edmund White's quote reflects on the tendency of young people to experience life with a sense of nostalgia even while they are actively living it, suggesting a longing for moments that may not hold as much importance later on. It emphasizes the idea that what we treasure in our future selves may be different from our current perceptions, prompting a reconsideration of how we value our experiences.
Themes
NostalgiaYouthValueExperienceFuture
In practice
Example use cases
During a graduation speech, to emphasize the importance of appreciating youth while also preparing for the future.
More from Edmund White
All quotes βI've always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.
Edmund WhiteRead
In a memoir, your main contract with the reader is to tell the truth, no matter how bizarre.
Edmund WhiteRead
If bigots oppose gay marriage so vehemently, it must be because marriage is a defining institution for them; gays will never be fully accepted until they can marry and adopt, like anyone else.
Edmund WhiteRead
I was never an assimilationist. I always thought gays had some special mission.
Edmund WhiteRead
The Stonewall riots were a key moment for gay people. Throughout modern history, gays had thought of themselves as something like a mental illness or maybe a sin or a crime. Gay liberation allowed us to make the leap to being a 'minority group,' which made life much easier.
Edmund WhiteRead
Similar quotes
Meditation is not a means of forgetting the ego; it is a method of using the ego to observe and tame its own manifestations.
Mark EpsteinRead
I would rather discover one true cause than gain the kingdom of Persia.
DemocritusRead
Cheap booze is a false economy.
Christopher HitchensRead
As a child, I didn't know what I didn't have. I'm thankful for the challenges early on in my life because now I have a perspective on the world and kind of know what's important.
America FerreraRead
Imagine your anger to be a kind of wild beast, because it has ferocious teeth and claws, and if you don't tame it, it will devastate all things even corrupting the soul.
Saint John ChrysostomRead
Lyra learns to her great cost that fantasy isnβt enough. She has been lying all her life, telling stories to people, making up fantasies, and suddenly she comes to a point where thatβs not enough. All she can do is tell the truth. She tells the truth about her childhood, about the experiences she had in Oxford, and that is what saves her. True experience, not fantasy - reality, not lies - is what saves us in the end.
Philip PullmanRead