Most writers tend to get worse rather than better. I'm determined to be one that gets better.
Edmund WhiteRead
Nobody in France would ever say 'He's a Jewish novelist' or 'She's a black novelist,' even though people do write about those subjects. It would look absurd to a French person to go into a bookstore and see a 'Gay Studies' section.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the different cultural perceptions of identity and how they relate to artistic expression in France.
Edmund White's quote highlights the French cultural approach to identity and literature, suggesting that categorizing writers by their racial, sexual, or religious identities is seen as absurd. In France, literature is appreciated more for its artistic merit than for the personal identities of the authors, indicating a desire for a more universal and less divisive understanding of art and creativity.
Themes
IdentityLiteratureCultureArtExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion on cultural differences in literature appreciation.
More from Edmund White
All quotes →I've always seen writing as a way of telling the truth. For me, writing is about truth. I have always tried to be faithful to my own experience.
Edmund WhiteRead
In a memoir, your main contract with the reader is to tell the truth, no matter how bizarre.
Edmund WhiteRead
If bigots oppose gay marriage so vehemently, it must be because marriage is a defining institution for them; gays will never be fully accepted until they can marry and adopt, like anyone else.
Edmund WhiteRead
When we are young... we often experience things in the present with a nostalgia-in-advance, but we seldom guess what we will truly prize years from now.
Edmund WhiteRead
I was never an assimilationist. I always thought gays had some special mission.
Edmund WhiteRead
Similar quotes
When one reaches this state of harmony between things and one's self, one reaches a state of perfect freedom and peace-which makes everything possible and right. Life becomes perpetual revelation.
Georges BraqueRead
Most sets of values would give rise to universes that, although they might be very beautiful, would contain no one able to wonder at that beauty.
Stephen HawkingRead
Yesterday I lived, today I suffer, tomorrow I die; but I still think fondly, today and tomorrow, of yesterday.
Gotthold Ephraim LessingRead
To will everything that God wills, and to will it always, in all circumstances and without reservations: that is the kingdom of God which is entirely within.
Francois FenelonRead
In your own bosom you bear your heaven and earth, _x000D_ And all you behold, though it appears without, _x000D_ It is within, in your imagination, _x000D_ Of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.
William BlakeRead
Human brutes, like other beasts, find snares and poison in the provision of life, and are allured by their appetites to their destruction.
Jonathan SwiftRead