In apartments and cottages, on the street and in the train... I listen... More and more, I turn into one large ear, always turning to another person.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
I've known since I was five that I wanted to be a writer.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a deep passion for writing that can surface at an early age.
Svetlana Alexievich's quote underscores the notion that true vocation often reveals itself early in life. It conveys the idea that from a young age, one can have a profound understanding of their destiny and passion, suggesting that the pursuit of one's passion is integral to personal fulfillment and identity.
In practice
In a speech at a literary festival, one might say, 'As Svetlana Alexievich expresses, knowing your calling early can fuel the fire for your creative journey.'
In apartments and cottages, on the street and in the train... I listen... More and more, I turn into one large ear, always turning to another person.
The subjects I wanted to write about - the mystery of the human soul, evil - didn't interest newspapers, and news reporting bored me.
'Women's' war has its own colors, its own smells, its own lighting, and its own range of feelings. There are no heroes and incredible feats; there are simply people who are busy doing inhumanly human things.
There is no need to give in to the compromise that totalitarian regimes always count on.
I've been searching for a genre that would be most adequate to my vision of the world to convey how my ear hears and my eyes see life. I tried this and that, and finally, I chose a genre where human voices speak for themselves. But I don't just record a dry history of events and facts; I'm writing a history of human feelings.
From the point of view of art, the butcher and the victim are equal as people. You need to see the people.
Art is the expression of imagination, not the reproduction of reality.
I would like to paint the way a bird sings.
I always want to do music that inspires or influences another generation. You want what you create to live, be it sculpture or painting or music. Like Michelangelo, he said, βI know the creator will go, but his work survives. That is why to escape death, I attempt to bind my soul to my work.
My feeling is that poetry is also a healing process, and then when a person tries to write poetry with depth or beauty, he will find himself guided along paths which will heal him, and this is more important, actually, than any of the poetry he writes.
There is a beauty in nature and culture that we no longer have access to. Those things you can't forget, you embroider... The further you tell, the further you travel from truth, which means, of course, that literature is a lie.
I have written it before and am not ashamed to write it again. Without Wodehouse I am not sure that I would be a tenth of what I am today -- whatever that may be. In my teenage years, his writings awoke me to the possibilities of language. His rhythms, tropes, tricks and mannerisms are deep within me. But more than that, he taught me something about good nature. It is enough to be benign, to be gentle, to be funny, to be kind.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.