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
The fear of becoming old is born of the recognition that one is not living now the life that one wishes.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Fear of aging often reflects dissatisfaction with current life choices.
Susan Sontag's quote highlights that the anxiety associated with growing old stems from an awareness that one's present life does not align with personal desires or aspirations. It suggests that instead of focusing on aging, individuals should engage more fully with their lives and pursue their true passions and goals to mitigate such fears.
Themes
FearAgingLifeDesiresPresentLiving
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational talk about living in the moment, I might say this quote to encourage people to embrace their current lives.
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.
Susan SontagRead
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.
Susan SontagRead
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.
Susan SontagRead
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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'Oscar Wao' for example cohered in a period of terrible distress. All the novels that I wanted to write were not happening.
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And, Joey, if you ever want to know about the japonicas and the daisy fields it will be alright that you have forgotten because I will be able to tell you about how it felt to be feeling that way you cannot quite remember β that will be for the time when something happens years from now that reminds you of now.
Zelda FitzgeraldRead
I grew up in poverty on the edge of a golf course. I saw how people lived on the other side of the tracks, the upper crust and the WASPs at the country club. We had chickens and pigs in our yards. We butchered every year. I'll never forget those things.
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The rosy hearth, the lamplight's narrow beam, The meditation that is rather dream, With looks that lose themselves in cherished looks; The hour of steaming tea and banished books; The sweetness of the evening at an end, The dear fatigue, and right to rest attained, And worshipped expectation of the night,β Oh, all these things, in unrelenting flight, My dream pursues through all the vain delays, Impatient of the weeks, mad at the days!
Paul VerlaineRead