The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
Don DelilloRead
Doesn't our knowledge of death make life more precious?' What good is a preciousness based on fear and anxiety? It's an anxious quivering thing
Interpretation
What this quote means
The awareness of death enhances the value of life, but if that awareness is rooted in fear, it undermines true appreciation.
In this quote, Don DeLillo explores the complex relationship between the concepts of life and death. He suggests that while understanding the inevitability of death can inspire us to cherish life, when this understanding is overshadowed by fear and anxiety, it distorts our perception. A life perceived through the lens of fear does not enable genuine appreciation; instead, it contributes to a state of anxiety that diminishes the beauty of existence.
Themes
LifeDeathFearAnxietyAppreciation
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the meaning of life, this quote could emphasize the importance of embracing life despite its impermanence.
More from Don Delillo
All quotes βWar is the form nostalgia takes when men are hard-pressed to say something good about their country.
Don DelilloRead
American writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be more dangerous.
Don DelilloRead
For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.
Don DelilloRead
I used to think it was possible for an artist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory.
Don DelilloRead
[I]n the American soul there is a lonely individual standing in a vast landscape. β¨He is either on a horse or driving a car, depending, and either way heβs carrying a gun. β¨This is one of the essential images in American mythology.
Don DelilloRead
Similar quotes
It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen.
AristotleRead
Lust is the cause of generation_x000D_ _x000D_ Appetite is the support of life_x000D_ _x000D_ Fear or timidity is the prolongation of life, and_x000D_ _x000D_ Fraud the preservation of its instruments.
Leonardo Da VinciRead
I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, human liberty as the source of national action, the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas
John F. KennedyRead
It is important to be in the 'we' of the Church, in the 'we' of the life of the Liturgy.
Pope Benedict XviRead
I suppose everybody must be always just a little homesick.
Joseph ConradRead
Is it more probable that nature should go out of her course, or that a man should tell a lie? We have never seen, in our time, nature go out of her course; but we have good reason to believe that millions of lies have been told in the same time.
Thomas PaineRead