Literature is not a picture of life, but is a separate experience with its own kind of flow and enhancement.
Interpretation
Literature provides a unique experience that transcends mere representation of life.
This quote by William Stafford emphasizes that literature should not be seen as a mere reflection of real life; rather, it is an immersive experience that offers its own rhythm and depth. It suggests that reading and engaging with literature allows individuals to access a distinct understanding of the world, one that is filled with its own emotions and insights, enriching our experience beyond the limitations of reality.
In practice
In a book club, to discuss the depth of literary experiences.
I keep following this sort of hidden river of my life, you know, whatever the topic or impulse which comes, I follow it along trustingly. And I don't have any sense of its coming to a kind of crescendo, or of its petering out either. It is just going steadily along.
They miss the whisper that runs any day in your mind, "Who are you really, wanderer?"-- and the answer you have to give no matter how dark and cold the world around you is: "Maybe I'm a king.
A speech is something you say so as to distract attention from what you do not say.
The things you do not have to say make you rich. Saying things you do not have to say weakens your talk. Hearing things you do not need to hear dulls your hearing. And things you know before you hear them β those are you, those are why you are in the world.
A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu.
So, the world happens twice--_x000D_ once what we see it as;_x000D_ second it legends itself_x000D_ deep, the way it is.
In the early stages of creation of both art and science, everything in the mind is a story.
What release to write so that one forgets oneself, forgets one's companion, forgets where one is or what one is going to do next to be drenched in sleep or in the sea. Pencils and pads and curling blue sheets alive with letters heap up on the desk.
I'd have been a filmmaker or a cartoonist or something else which extended from the visual arts into the making of narratives if I hadn't been able to shift into fiction.
I decided to sell my drawings. However, I didn't want people to buy my drawings because the professor of physics isn't supposed to be able to draw - isn't that wonderful - so I made up a false name.
The thing that I love most about being on stage is making people happy...It's my job to do that, and I enjoy it.
It's taken me other places, but it was the impulse to write that led me to singing. I'm not a musician. I never thought of performing in a rock n' roll band. I was just drawn in. It was like being called to duty - I was called to duty, and I did my duty as best as I could.
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