War is the form nostalgia takes when men are hard-pressed to say something good about their country.
Don DelilloRead
The writer is the person who stands outside society, independent of affiliation and independent of influence.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the writer's role as an independent thinker, unbound by social conventions or external pressures.
Don Delillo's quote speaks to the unique position of the writer in society, highlighting their ability to observe and critique the world from a distance. It suggests that true writers must maintain their independence to ensure their work reflects genuine thoughts and insights, free from the influence of societal expectations or affiliations that might compromise their authenticity.
Themes
WriterIndependenceSocietyCreativityInfluence
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a writing workshop to inspire students to find their unique voices.
More from Don Delillo
All quotes βAmerican writers ought to stand and live in the margins, and be more dangerous.
Don DelilloRead
For me, writing is a concentrated form of thinking.
Don DelilloRead
I used to think it was possible for an artist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory.
Don DelilloRead
[I]n the American soul there is a lonely individual standing in a vast landscape. β¨He is either on a horse or driving a car, depending, and either way heβs carrying a gun. β¨This is one of the essential images in American mythology.
Don DelilloRead
There's a curious knot that binds novelists and terrorists...Years ago I used to think it was possible for a novelist to alter the inner life of the culture. Now bomb-makers and gunmen have taken that territory. They make raids on human consciousness. What writers used to do before we were all incorporated.
Don DelilloRead
Similar quotes
Evolution does not isolate us from the rest of the Kosmos, it unites us with the rest of the Kosmos: the same currents that produced birds from dust and poetry from rocks produce egos from ids and sages from egos.
Ken WilberRead
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Eleanor RooseveltRead
A man does not have to go and find where his eyes are in order to see. The heart is there, always open to you, if you care to enter it, always supporting your movements, although you may be unaware of it. It is perhaps more correct to say that the Self is the Heart. Really the Self is the centre and is everywhere aware of itself as the Heart or Self-awareness.
Ramana MaharshiRead
Does anyone believe that Goldman Sachs is gonna give up a deal that would yield millions of dollars because someone fussed at them behind closed doors?
Elizabeth WarrenRead
The Soviet system of propaganda and censorship existed not so much for the purpose of spreading a particular message as for the purpose of making learning impossible, replacing facts with mush, and handing the faceless state a monopoly on defining an ever-shifting reality.
Masha GessenRead
How difficult it is to avoid having a special standard for oneself.
C. S. LewisRead