The word "now" is like a bomb through the window, and it ticks.
Arthur MillerRead
Controlled hysteria is what's required. To exist constantly in a state of controlled hysteria. It's agony. But everyone has agony. The difference is that I try to take my agony home and teach it to sing.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects the struggle of managing personal pain while finding a way to express it creatively.
Arthur Miller's quote highlights the idea that everyone experiences their own form of suffering or 'agony', but what sets individuals apart is their approach to dealing with this pain. Instead of being overwhelmed by it, Miller suggests adopting a mindset of 'controlled hysteria', where one channels their emotional turmoil into creativity, ultimately transforming their agony into art or expression. This speaks to the profound relationship between suffering and creativity, emphasizing that it is possible to find beauty and meaning even in hardship.
Themes
AgonyCreativityPainControlled HysteriaExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about resilience and creativity.
More from Arthur Miller
All quotes →Amos Oz is one of the finest novelists of this entire period. MY MICHAEL is a beautiful work of great depth and in some indescribable way lingers in the mind as a lyric song to his country's people as much as a moving love story.
Arthur MillerRead
Just remember, kid, you can quicker get back a million dollars that was stole than a word that you gave away.
Arthur MillerRead
Oh,Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer.
Arthur MillerRead
The structure of a play is always the story of how the birds came home to roost.
Arthur MillerRead
Immortality is like trying to carve your initials in a block of ice in the middle of July.
Arthur MillerRead
Similar quotes
If this being is omnipotent, then every occurrence, including every human action, every human thought, and every human feeling and aspiration is also His work; how is it possible to think of holding men responsible for their deeds and thoughts before such an almighty Being? In giving out punishment and rewards He would to a certain extent be passing judgment on Himself. How can this be combined with the goodness and righteousness ascribed to Him?
Albert EinsteinRead
What ever the course of our lives, we should recieve them as the highest gift from the hand of God, in which equally reposed the power to do nothing whatever for us. Indeed, we should accept misfortune not only in thanks, but in infinite gratitude to Providence, which by such means detaches us from an excessive love for Earthly things and elevates our minds to the celestial and divine.
Galileo GalileiRead
Bribes are not offered in such a way that you can prove them, and in order to prove that I didn't accept a bribe, I had to run.
Jeannette RankinRead
Freedom is not the right to do what we want, but what we ought
Abraham LincolnRead
To modify the conditions of the Earth's movement is beyond the powers of man. It is not given to mankind to change the order established by the Creator in the system of the Universe.
Jules VerneRead
The written word is weak. Many people prefer life to it. Life gets your blood going, & it smells good. Writing is mere writing, literature is mere. It appeals only to the subtlest senses—the imagination’s vision, & the imagination’s hearing—& the moral sense, & the intellect. This writing that you do, that so thrills you, that so rocks & exhilarates you, as if you were dancing next to the band, is barely audible to anyone else.
Annie DillardRead