What I wanted to do was to get that sense of being in touch with this lost world while holding onto what draws readers and audiences there in the first place.
Stephen GreenblattRead
I've been at this for 40 years. And, as an academic, I've been content with relatively small audiences, with the thought that the audience I long for will find its way eventually to what I have written, provided that what I have written is good enough.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of quality over quantity in academic work. It suggests that worthwhile contributions will eventually reach the right audience.
Stephen Greenblatt reflects on his decades of academic work, articulating a belief in the eventual discovery of valuable ideas by the appropriate audience. He highlights a sense of patience and dedication, trusting that commitment to quality in writing will ultimately attract those who appreciate it, regardless of the immediate size of one's audience.
Themes
AcademicAudienceWritingQualityDedication
In practice
Example use cases
During a conference on educational philosophy, one might quote this to stress the importance of focusing on quality work rather than the size of the audience.
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The greatest obstacle to pleasure is not pain; it is delusion.
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I believe in broken, fractured, complicated narratives, but I believe in narratives as a vehicle for truth, not simply as a form of entertainment, though I love entertainment, but also a way of conveying what needs to be conveyed about the works that I care about.
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