All literature is an attempt to make life real. As all of…
““All literature is an attempt to make life real. As all of us know, even when we don’t act on what we know, life is absolutely unreal in its directly real form; the country, the city and our ideas are all absolutely fictitious things, the offspring of our complex sensation of our own selves. Impressions are incommunicable unless we make them literary. Children are particularly literary, for they say what they feel and not what someone has taught them to feel. Once I heard a child, who wished to say that he was on the verge of tears, say not ‘I feel like crying,’ which is what an adult, i.e. an idiot, would say, but rather, ‘I feel like tears.’ And this phrase – so literary it would seem affected in a well-known poet, if he could ever invent it – decisively refers to the warm presence of tears about to burst from eyelids that feel the liquid bitterness. ‘I feel like tears’! That””
About This Quote
This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.
Literature gives form to lived experience, turning private sensations into shared reality through narrative.
In simple terms: Writing makes feelings tangible and communicable.
Key Takeaway
Translate personal insights into stories.
Themes
expression
reality
communication
Mood
reflective
introspective
Type
philosophical
literary
When to use this quote
- personal journaling
- creative writing workshops
- therapy sessions
- educational curricula
Key Concepts
subjectivity
perception
literary theory
Questions to Reflect On
- How can we ensure authenticity in narrative?
- What limits does language place on feeling?
A Different Perspective
Literature may oversimplify complex emotions.