Having the urge to write a novel, especially if you've yet to be published, is like having a medical condition impossible to mention in polite company - it's a relief simply to know there are fellow-sufferers out there.
Robert HarrisRead
If one tries to think about history, it seems to me - it's like looking at a range of mountains. And the first time you see them, they look one way. But then time changes, the pattern of light shifts. Maybe you've moved slightly, your perspective has changed. The mountains are the same, but they look very different.
Interpretation
History can be viewed differently depending on our perspective and the passage of time.
This quote illustrates how our understanding of history is not static but changes with time and perspective. Just like mountains can appear different under varying light conditions or from different angles, our interpretation of historical events evolves, reminding us that history is subjective and can be revisited with new insights.
In practice
In a history class, to illustrate the importance of perspective when analyzing past events.
Having the urge to write a novel, especially if you've yet to be published, is like having a medical condition impossible to mention in polite company - it's a relief simply to know there are fellow-sufferers out there.
To tell a good story and to illuminate the world: the two things are completely linked. That is the point. That is what I've always wanted to do.
The gloomiest way of describing the ancient world is it is misogyny from A to Z, really.
If a man has lost a leg or an eye, he knows he has lost a leg or an eye; but if he has lost a self - himself - he cannot know it, because he is no longer there to know it.
Our brain is mapping the world. Often that map is distorted, but it's a map with constant immediate sensory input.
Pain forces even the innocent to lie.
God is not something I think about but something I experience as an energy, a Presence. I do find it easier to pray to a female Presence or an androgynous Presence.
The struggle is inner: Chicano, indio, American Indian, mojado, mexicano, immigrant Latino, Anglo in power, working class Anglo, Black, Asian--our psyches resemble the bordertowns and are populated by the same people. The struggle has always been inner, and is played out in outer terrains. Awareness of our situation must come before inner changes, which in turn come before changes in society. Nothing happens in the "real" world unless it first happens in the images in our heads.
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