--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: For me, wellbehaved books with neat plots…" description: "\"For me, wellbehaved books with neat plots and worked-out endings seem somewhat quaint in the face of the largely incoherent reality of modern life; and..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e9/don-delillo-294_ambiguity_for-me-wellbehaved-books-with-neat-plots_3195992.jpg" --- # For me, wellbehaved books with neat plots and worked-out… ![“For me, wellbehaved books with neat plots and worked-out endings seem somewhat quaint in the face of the largely incoherent reality of modern life; and then again fiction, at least as I write it and think of it, is a kind of religious meditation in which language is the final enlightenment, and it…” quote by Don DeLillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e9/don-delillo-294_ambiguity_for-me-wellbehaved-books-with-neat-plots_3195992.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e9/don-delillo-294_ambiguity_for-me-wellbehaved-books-with-neat-plots_3195992.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/2e9/don-delillo-294_ambiguity_for-me-wellbehaved-books-with-neat-plots_3195992.jpg) > “For me, wellbehaved books with neat plots and worked-out endings seem somewhat quaint in the face of the largely incoherent reality of modern life; and then again fiction, at least as I write it and think of it, is a kind of religious meditation in which language is the final enlightenment, and it is language, in its beauty, its ambiguity and its shifting textures, that drives my work.” [Don DeLillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-delillo/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Fiction mirrors chaotic reality, using language’s beauty and ambiguity as a meditative path to insight. **In simple terms:** Fiction reflects chaos through language. Key Takeaway Embrace ambiguity to deepen creative work. Themes fiction reality language Mood introspective thoughtful Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - writing workshops - literary analysis - creative retreats Key Concepts postmodernism metafiction aesthetic philosophy Questions to Reflect On - How does uncertainty inspire you? - What role does language play in your worldview? A Different Perspective Ambiguity can alienate some readers. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Ambiguity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ambiguity/) [Book](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/book/) [Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) [Books Neat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books-neat-5914772/) [Buddhism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/buddhism/) [Enlightenment](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/enlightenment/) [Faces](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/faces/) [Fiction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fiction/) [Finals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/finals/) [Kind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kind/) [Language](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/language/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Life Fiction](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life-fiction-618964/) [Meditation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/meditation/) [Modern](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/modern/) [Modern life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/modern-life/) [Neat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/neat/) [Plot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/plot/) [Quaint](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/quaint/) [Reality](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/reality/) [Religious](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/religious/) [Seems](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/seems/) [Shifting](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shifting/) [Somewhat Quaint](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/somewhat-quaint-5914771/) [Texture](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/texture/) [Thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thinking/) [Wellbehaved Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wellbehaved-books-5914770/) [Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/) ## Related quotes > [“History was not a matter of missing minutes on the tape. I did not stand helpless before it. I hewed to the texture of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-delillo/history-was-not-a-matter-of-missing-minutes-on-the-tape-i-did-not/) [Don DeLillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-delillo/) > [It was the time of year, the time of day, for a small insistent sadness to pass into the texture of things. Dusk, silence,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-delillo/it-was-the-time-of-year-the-time-of-day-for-a-small-insistent-sadness/) [Don DeLillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-delillo/) > [Isn't death the boundary we need? Doesn't it give a precious texture to life, a sense of definition? You have to ask yourself whether…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-delillo/isn-t-death-the-boundary-we-need-doesn-t-it-give-a-precious-texture/) [Don DeLillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-delillo/) > [“At some point you have to choose between life and fiction." 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You manage the story, you…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/patrick-timm/you-are-a-writer-you-write-one-chapter-and-go-on-to-the-next-and-the/) [Patrick Timm](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/patrick-timm/) > [“Modern life is a fiction; it feels like nothing ever changes, but when you examine its fabric, its zeros and ones, it's falling apart.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/catherine-prasifka/modern-life-is-a-fiction-it-feels-like-nothing-ever-changes-but-when/) [Catherine Prasifka](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/catherine-prasifka/) > [Really, I've worked my whole adult life at fiction, to try and write fiction.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-bock/really-i-ve-worked-my-whole-adult-life-at-fiction-to-try-and-write/) [Charles Bock](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-bock/) > [I wasn't safe. I wasn't permanent. 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Pillow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michelle-m-pillow/) ## More by Don DeLillo > [“We all know how the thing we secretly fear is not a secret at all but the open and eternal thing that predicts its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/don-delillo/we-all-know-how-the-thing-we-secretly-fear-is-not-a-secret-at-all-but/) [Don DeLillo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/don-delillo/) > [Everything is barely weeks. Everything is days. 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I don't think there's any ambiguity there.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mary-l-trump/i-blame-my-grandfather-100-percent-for-his-oldest-son-s-death-i-don-t/) [Mary L. Trump](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mary-l-trump/) > [I think the relationship between social-dominance orientation in people and the extent to which they're made uncomfortable by ambiguity and novelty is really important.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-sapolsky/i-think-the-relationship-between-social-dominance-orientation-in/) [Robert Sapolsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-sapolsky/) > [Yet again, an ancient answer echoes across the centuries: Listen! Listen to stories! For what stories do, above all else, is hold up a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ernest-kurtz/yet-again-an-ancient-answer-echoes-across-the-centuries-listen-listen/) [Ernest Kurtz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ernest-kurtz/) > [My path to wisdom began when I stopped pretending to know things I didn't know. 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