I just sit here and tell the story as though I can't help it. There's always something in the day that reminds me, that sets me off all hot and guilty and scared and rambling and wistful, like I am now.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the involuntary nature of storytelling and the emotions that fuel it.
Tim Winton's quote suggests that storytelling is an inherent part of human experience, driven by our daily interactions and memories that evoke deep-seated emotions. The storyteller seems to be overwhelmed by feelings of guilt, fear, and nostalgia, which inspire them to share their narratives, highlighting the complexity of human emotions and the urgency of expression in the face of such feelings.
In practice
In a writing workshop, when discussing the role of emotions in storytelling.
When you're surfing you're not thinking about where you parked the car or what you're going to do when you grow up or what you're going to buy when you've got lots of money. You know, you're just there. You're in the moment. And I think in a contemporary world, that's a rare privilege.
I don't believe there's anything cosmic or divine or morally superior about whales and dolphins or sharks or trees, but I do think that everything that lives is holy and somehow integrated; and on cloudy days I suspect that these extraordinary phenomena, and the hundreds of tiny, modest versions no one hears about, are an ocean, an earth, a Creator, something shaking us by the collar, demanding our attention, our fear, our vigilance, our respect, our help.
The night is full of stories. They float up like miasmas, as though the dead leave their dreams in the earth where you bury them, only to have them rise to meet you in sleep. Mostly the scenes are familiar, but sometimes everything is strange, the people unknown.
Hunting and gathering are in my blood. But I've lived long enough to witness a diminution in the seas, and to notice a fragility where once I saw - or assumed - an endless bounty.
And simple truth miscalled simplicity
The words that come out of our mouths do not vanish but are perpetually stored in infinite space, and they will come back to us in due time.
People's ability to forget what they do not want to know, to overlook what is before their eyes, was seldom put to the test better than in Germany at that time.
Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure.
The glory of Christianity is to conquer by forgiveness. It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
We each appear to hold within ourselves a range of divergent views as to our native qualities.. And amid such uncertainty, we typically turn to the wider world to settle the question of our significance.. we seem beholden to affections of others to endure ourselves.
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