We burned with love for ourselves, all of us, starters of the fire we suffered- our love was the affliction for which only our love was the cure.
Jonathan Safran FoerRead
People always ask what a book is about, as if it has to be about something. I don't want to write books that lend themselves to that sort of description. My books are more a kind of breaking-down.
Interpretation
Books can transcend simple summaries; they are about deeper explorations and experiences.
In this quote, Jonathan Safran Foer expresses his belief that books should not be confined to a straightforward, descriptive narrative. Instead, he views them as tools for deconstruction and exploration, inviting readers to engage with layers of meaning that go beyond surface-level interpretations.
In practice
During a literary discussion at a book club, someone could use this quote to emphasize the importance of interpreting literature beyond its surface.
We burned with love for ourselves, all of us, starters of the fire we suffered- our love was the affliction for which only our love was the cure.
Memory was supposed to fill the time, but it made time a hole to be filled. Each second was two hundred yards, to be walked, crawled. You couldn't see the next hour, it was so far in the distance. Tomorrow was over the horizon, and would take an entire day to reach.
She was not crying Which surprised me very much But I understand now That she had found places For her melancholy That were behind more masks Than only her eyes
What do babies dream of? She must be dreaming of the before-life, just as I dream of the afterlife.
A few weeks after the worst day, I started writing lots of letters. I don't know why, but it was one of the only things that made my boots lighter.
What is being awake if not interpreting our dreams, or dreaming if not interpreting our wake?
The very best design, I feel, is that which resonates so deeply that people can't help but discover something within themselves when they see it.
Picture and sculpture are the celebrations and festivities of form.
As a writer of fiction, I spend my days inventing real lives for make-believe people; what I create can only seem real.
Type well used is invisible as type, just as the perfect talking voice is the unnoticed vehicle for the transmission of words, ideas.
Real mathematics must be justified as art if it can be justified at all.
By fairy hands their knell is rung; By forms unseen their dirge is sung.
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