Express yourself Quote by David Grossman
““I write. I give intimate private names to an external and foreign world. In a sense, I make it mine. In a sense, I return from feeling exiled and foreign to feeling at home. By doing so, I am already making a small change in what appeared to me earlier as unchangeable. Also, when I describe the impermeable arbitrariness that signs my destiny — arbitrariness at the hands of a human being, or arbitrariness at the hands of fate — I suddenly discover new nuances, subtleties. I discover that the mere act of writing about arbitrariness allows me to feel a freedom of movement in relation to it. That by merely facing up to arbitrariness I am granted freedom — maybe the only freedom a man may have against any arbitrariness: the freedom to put your tragedy into your own words. The freedom to express yourself differently, innovatively, before that which threatens to chain and bind one to arbitrariness and its limited, fossilizing definitions.””
About This Quote
Source Interview: The Art of Writing, Podcast, 2022
Writing personal narratives transforms feelings of alienation into agency, granting freedom over arbitrary fate.
In simple terms: Writing gives freedom over fate.
Write to reclaim agency.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- journaling
- creative writing
- therapy sessions
- academic essays
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How does writing change your perception?
- What limits does writing face?
Writing may not change external circumstances.