“We are so placid that the smallest tremor of objection to anything at all is taken as a full-scale revolution. Should any soul speak up in favor of the obvious, it is taken as a symptom of the influence of the left, the right, the pink, the black, the dangerous. An idea for its own sake - especially an obvious idea - has no respectability.” ShouldIdeasSoulLeftSpeakBlackTakenInfluenceDangerousRevolutionSakeObviousFavorsScalesSmallestSymptomsObjectionsRespectabilityPlacid Book:Art & ardor: essays Source: Art & ardor: essays
“Fiction does not invent out of a vacuum, but it invents; and what it invents is, first, the fabric and cadence of language, and then a slant of idea that sails out of these as a fin lifts from the sea.” FirstsDoeIdeasLanguageFictionSeaLiftsFabricSailVacuumsCadenceFins Book:The Din in the Head Source: The Din in the Head
“If ideas are what feed serious literature and arresting language, who today is writing a novel of ideas (which can often mean comedy)? I think of Joshua Cohen. Who else?” IfsThinkingWritingMeanIdeasTodayLiteratureLanguageNovelComedySeriousArresting Author:Cynthia Ozick
“I'm not afraid of facts, I welcome facts but a congeries of facts is not equivalent to an idea. This is the essential fallacy of the so-called "scientific" mind. People who mistake facts for ideas are incomplete thinkers; they are gossips.” PeopleMindIdeasFactsMistakeEssentialsWelcomeGossipThinkerNot AfraidIncompleteFallacy Author:Cynthia Ozick
“One reason writers write is out of revenge. Life hurts; certain ideas and experiences hurt; one wants to clarify, to set out illuminations, to replay the old bad scenes and get the Treppenworte said -- the words one didn't have the strength or ripeness to say when those words were necessary for one's dignity or survival.” WantWritingSaidIdeasReasonCertainHurtSceneSurvivalDignityRevengeIlluminationReplayRipenessLife Hurts Author:Cynthia Ozick
