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.
Susan SontagRead
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.
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
All quotes →Science fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster, which is one of the oldest subjects of art.
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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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Books are good company, in sad times and happy times, for books are people-- people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.
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I think British journalists do well in America because the newspaper culture there is so strong - telling stories and presenting them readably is in their DNA. British newspapers get a terrible rap, but they are brilliant in their presentation, most of them, so full of vitality and literary wit.
Tina BrownRead