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Depths Quote by Hélène Cixous

“That is the definition of truth, it is the thing you must not say. “The miracle into which the child and the poet walk” [Tsvetaeva] as if walking home, and home is there…The thing that is both known and unknown, this is what we are looking for when we write. We go toward the most unknown and the…” quote by Hélène Cixous
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““That is the definition of truth, it is the thing you must not say. “The miracle into which the child and the poet walk” [Tsvetaeva] as if walking home, and home is there…The thing that is both known and unknown, this is what we are looking for when we write. We go toward the most unknown and the best unknown, this is what we are looking for when we write. We go toward the best known unknown thing, where knowing and not knowing touch, where we hope we will know what is unknown. Where we hope we will not be afraid of understanding the incomprehensible, facing invisible, hearing the inaudible, thinking the unthinkable, which is of course: thinking. Thinking is trying to think the unthinkable: thinking the thinkable is not worth the effort. Painting is trying to paint what you cannot paint and writing is writing what you cannot know before you have written: it is preknowing and not knowing, blindly, with words. It occurs at the point where blindness and light meet. Kafka says—one very small line lost in his writing—“to the depths, to the depths.””

Hélène Cixous

About This Quote

Source Interview: The Unnameable Text, 1990

The quote explores the paradox of truth and artistic creation, emphasizing that true insight lies at the boundary of known and unknown, where language attempts to capture the unexpressible.

In simple terms: Art seeks the unknowable, truth lives at the edge of knowledge.

Key Takeaway

Embrace uncertainty to create deeper work.

Themes

creativity truth paradox language knowledge

Mood

curious reflective

Type

philosophical inspirational

When to use this quote

  • writing
  • painting
  • philosophical inquiry
  • exploring limits

Key Concepts

epistemology aesthetics existentialism

Questions to Reflect On

  • How do you confront the unknown in your work?
  • What does “preknowing” mean for you?
A Different Perspective

The pursuit of certainty can stifle imagination.

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