A story is like something you wind out of yourself. Like a spider, it is a web you weave, and you love your story like a child.
Katherine Anne PorterRead
They had both noticed that a life of dissipation sometimes gave to a face the look of gaunt suffering spirituality that a life of asceticism was supposed to give and quite often did not.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that indulgence can sometimes lead to a profound inner experience resembling that of self-denial.
Katherine Anne Porter reflects on the paradox of how a life filled with excess can produce an appearance of suffering and spiritual depth that is often associated with asceticism. This observation implies that external appearances can be misleading, and that the true nature of a person’s inner spiritual state may not align with their lifestyle choices, encouraging us to question conventional ideas about morality and spirituality.
Themes
DissipationAsceticismSpiritualityLife ChoicesAppearance
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the meaning of life at a philosophy seminar.
More from Katherine Anne Porter
All quotes →Writing, in any sense that matters, cannot be taught. It can only be learned by each separate one of us in his own way, by the use of his own powers of imagination and perception, the ability to learn the lessons he has set for himself.
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You do not create a style. You work, and develop yourself; your style is an emanation from your own being.
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Miracles are instantaneous, they cannot be summoned, but come of themselves, usually at unlikely moments and to those who least expect them.
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Now and again thousands of memories _x000D_ converge, harmonize, _x000D_ arrange themselves around a central idea _x000D_ in a coherent form, _x000D_ and I write a story.
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Childhood is the fiery furnace in which we are melted down to essentials and that essential shaped for good.
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