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Literature was the passport to enter a larger life; that is, the zone of freedom. Literature was freedom. Especially in a time in which the values of reading and inwardness are so strenuously challenged, literature is freedom.
Susan Sontag
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Literature opens doors to deeper understanding and freedom in life.

In this quote, Susan Sontag emphasizes that literature serves as a gateway to a broader and more liberated existence. In times when the importance of reading and introspection is questioned, she argues that literature is ultimately a form of freedom, allowing individuals to explore ideas, emotions, and experiences beyond their immediate reality, thus nurturing a sense of autonomy and self-discovery.

Themes

LiteratureFreedomReadingInwardnessValues

In practice

Example use cases

In a book club discussion about the importance of literature in personal growth.

More from Susan Sontag

Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a sense of the past.
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Gide and I have attained such perfect intellectual communion that I experience the appropriate labor pains for every thought he gives birth to!
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Volume depends precisely on the writer's having been able to sit in a room every day, year after year, alone.
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In NY sensuality completely turns into sexuality - no objects for the senses to respond to, no beautiful river, houses, people. Awful smells of the street, and dirt... Nothing except eating, if that, and the frenzy of the bed.
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It hurts to love. It's like giving yourself to be flayed and knowing that at any moment the other person may just walk off with your skin.
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