The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
Don DelilloRead
I embarked on my life - I didn't do anything. I don't have an explanation.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the complexity of existence and the often inexplicable nature of our choices in life.
In this quote, Don Delillo expresses the notion that life is more about the journey and our experiences than about having a clear or rational explanation for our actions or decisions. It suggests that simply living and embracing life is an act in itself, regardless of whether one understands the reasoning behind it. This can invoke a sense of humility in the face of life's intricacies and unpredictability.
Themes
LifeExistenceChoicesJourneyUnderstanding
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a philosophical discussion about the meaning of life.
More from Don Delillo
All quotes βWar is the form nostalgia takes when men are hard-pressed to say something good about their country.
Don DelilloRead
American writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be more dangerous.
Don DelilloRead
For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.
Don DelilloRead
I used to think it was possible for an artist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory.
Don DelilloRead
[I]n the American soul there is a lonely individual standing in a vast landscape. β¨He is either on a horse or driving a car, depending, and either way heβs carrying a gun. β¨This is one of the essential images in American mythology.
Don DelilloRead
Similar quotes
The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts. It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person.
Eric HofferRead
The press doesn't stop publishing, by the way, in a fascist escalation; it simply watches what it says. That too can be an incremental process, and the pace at which the free press polices itself depends on how journalists are targeted.
Naomi WolfRead
Calamities are of two kinds: misfortunes to ourselves, and good fortune to others.
Ambrose BierceRead
His (Christ's) appearance in our midst has made it undeniably clear that changing the human heart and changing human society are not separate tasks, but are as interconnected as the two beams of the cross.
Henri NouwenRead
No generalizing beyond the data, no theory. No theory, no insight. And if no insight, why do research.
Henry MintzbergRead
Let me be the child in the story and declare that the Emperor is naked β or that America is culturally bankrupt.
Ayn RandRead