That afternoon he told me that the difference between human beings and animals was that human beings were able to dream while awake. He said the purpose of books was to permit us to exercise that faculty. Art, he said, was a controlled madness… He said books weren't made of themes, which you could write essays about, but of images that inserted themselves into your brain and replaced what you were seeing with your eyes.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the unique human ability to dream and imagine while awake, highlighting the transformative power of books and art.
In this quote, Steven Millhauser illustrates the fundamental distinction between humans and animals, centering it on our capacity for conscious dreaming and imagination. He argues that books serve not just as sources of knowledge, but as vehicles for creative thinking, allowing readers to visualize and connect deeply with the ideas presented, akin to controlled chaos or madness found in art, which alters our perception of reality.
In practice
In a book club discussion to highlight the importance of literature in understanding art.
I think of childhood as an explosion of creativity. For most people, growing up and earning a living means leaving all that behind. But an artist never leaves that behind. Edwin Mullhouse was my way of exploring the child as artist and, under the guise of childhood, something larger.
Stories, like conjuring tricks, are invented because history is inadequate for our dreams.
When I work, I'm just translating the world around me in what seems to be straightforward terms. For my readers, this is sometimes a vision that's not familiar. But I'm not trying to manipulate reality. This is just what I see and hear.
In words, like weeds, I'll wrap me o'er, Like coarsest clothes against the cold
In my naïvety, I thought people who were in rock 'n' roll bands were great artists, and it was a huge shock to the system to realise that they weren't, that they didn't even aspire to be, really. Some of them did, maybe, but some of them, like Samson, were very frightened of the idea.
Poetry at its best can do you a lot of harm.
Sometimes when I sit down to practice and there is no one else in the room, I have to stifle an impulse to ring for the elevator man and offer him money to come in and hear me.
Lie to me by the moonlight. Do a fabulous story.
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