I'm terrified of losing my voice.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a deep fear of losing one's ability to communicate and express oneself.
Christopher Hitchens, a renowned writer and speaker, articulated a profound concern about the potential loss of his voice. This sentiment encapsulates not just the literal fear of losing the ability to speak, but also symbolizes the broader anxiety surrounding the loss of personal agency, individuality, and the essence of one's identity. Our voice is a vital part of who we are and how we interact with the world; losing it can mean losing our power to influence, connect, and share our thoughts with others.
In practice
In a discussion about the importance of free speech.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
The worst days are when you feel foggy in the head - chemo-brain they call it. It's awful because you feel boring. As well as bored. And stupid. And resigned.
Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way β because itβs had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But youβve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
We do become our conversations. We really will become our associations.
I don't write about good and evil with this enormous dichotomy. I write about people. I write about people doing the kinds of things that people do.
Contraceptive protection is something every woman must have access to, to control her own destiny.
Time, Baby - so much, so much time left until the end of my life - sometimes I go crazy at how slowly time passes yet how quickly my body ages. But I shouldn't allow myself to think like this. I have to remind myself that time only frightens me when I think of having to spend it alone. Sometimes I scare myself with how many of my thoughts revolve around making me feel better about sleeping alone in a room.
We need myths that will identify the individual not with his local group but with the planet.
A liar goes in fine clothes, a liar goes in rags, a liar is a liar, clothes or no clothes.
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