The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.
Umberto EcoRead
I love the secrecy of writing fiction. When I write a novel, I don't tell anybody what I'm doing. I'm living in my private world. And it's a great sensation.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the joy and personal freedom an author feels while writing fiction in solitude.
Umberto Eco highlights the deep satisfaction and thrill of immersing oneself in the world of fiction writing, emphasizing the importance of privacy and personal space in the creative process. By guarding the details of his work, he cherishes the unique experience of exploring his imagination without external influence or scrutiny, suggesting that this secrecy enhances the joy of creation.
In practice
During a writing workshop, I shared this quote to illustrate the beauty of creative solitude.
The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity.
I think that at a certain age, say fifteen or sixteen, poetry is like masturbation. But later in life good poets burn their early poetry, and bad poets publish it. Thankfully I gave up rather quickly.
But why do some people support [the heretics]?" "Because it serves their purposes, which concern the faith rarely, and more often the conquest of power." "Is that why the church of Rome accuses all its adversaries of heresy?" "That is why, and that is also why it recognizes as orthodoxy any heresy it can bring back under its own control or must accept because the heresy has become too strong.
You die, but most of what you have accumulated will not be lost; you are leaving a message in a bottle.
"Then we are living in a place abandoned by God," I said, disheartened. "Have you found any places where God would have felt at home?" William asked me, looking down from his great height.
The lunatic is all idΓ©e fixe, and whatever he comes across confirms his lunacy. You can tell him by the liberties he takes with common sense, by his flashes of inspiration, and by the fact that sooner or later he brings up the Templars.
What I hate about kitchen-sink dramas is [this idea] that the set is real, therefore you're going to be seeing truth. You have to earn truth. Truth can't be a part of the fact that people appear to talk that way and live in that room. You're looking for the poetry in something, and I don't mean poetry in the fancy sense. Naturalism believes by just replicating a thing you give the truth, rather than earning the truth.
Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid.
I understood that synergistic dance between photographer and object - 'muse,' if you will, 'model,' whatever you call us. It's that silent language of communication, like being psychic with each other.
Genius creates, and taste preserves. Taste is the good sense of genius; without taste, genius is only sublime folly.
If you're going to be honest with yourself, you have to admit that you go into show business wanting people to talk about you and wanting everyone to know who you are. But that also means there are going to be a whole bunch of people who don't like you. No matter who you are.
If I choose to write about sheep, it's just because I happened to write about sheep. There is no deep significance.
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