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Quote by Yann Martel

“The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the public arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defense, not God's, that the self-righteous should rush.”

Quote by Yann Martel

Work

Life of Pi

Yann Martel's 'Life of Pi' is a narrative that follows the young Pi Patel's extraordinary journey after a shipwreck leaves him adrift in the Pacific Ocean with a zoo of animals. The story combines elements of fantasy and realism, prompting readers to question the nature of reality and the limits of human endurance. more

Author

Yann Martel
Yann Martel

Yann Martel is a Canadian author known for his unique literary style and profound themes. His novel 'Life of Pi' won the Booker Prize in 2002 and became an international bestseller, propelling him to global recognition. Martel's works often explore deep questions of humanity and existence. more

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“In his poems and in his teaching of other poets, Bashō set forth a simple, deeply useful reminder: that if you see for yourself, hear for yourself, and enter deeply enough this seeing and hearing, all things will speak with and through you. “To learn about the pine tree,” he told his students, “go to the pine tree; to learn from the bamboo, study bamboo.” He found in every life and object an equal potential for insight and expansion. A good subject for haiku, he suggested, is a crow picking mud-snails from between a rice paddy’s plants. Seen truly, he taught, there is nothing that does not become a flower, a moon. “But unless things are seen with fresh eyes,” he added, “nothing’s worth writing down.” A wanderer all his life both in body and spirit, Bashō concerned himself less with destination than with the quality of the traveller’s attention. A poem, he comments, only exists while it’s on the writing desk; by the time its ink has dried, it should be recognized as just a scrap of paper. In poetry as in life, he saw each moment as gate-latch. Permeability mattered more in this process than product or will: “If we were to gain mastery over things, we would find their lives would vanish under us without a trace.”