--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Writing comes into being to retain…" description: "\"Writing comes into being to retain information across time and across space. Before writing, communication is evanescent and local; sounds carry a few ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b14/james-gleick-2623_communication_writing-comes-into-being-to-retain-infor_887779.jpg" --- # Writing comes into being to retain information across time… ![“Writing comes into being to retain information across time and across space. Before writing, communication is evanescent and local; sounds carry a few yards and fade to oblivion. The evanescence of the spoken word went without saying. So fleeting was speech that the rare phenomenon of the echo, a…” quote by James Gleick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b14/james-gleick-2623_communication_writing-comes-into-being-to-retain-infor_887779.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b14/james-gleick-2623_communication_writing-comes-into-being-to-retain-infor_887779.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b14/james-gleick-2623_communication_writing-comes-into-being-to-retain-infor_887779.jpg) > “Writing comes into being to retain information across time and across space. Before writing, communication is evanescent and local; sounds carry a few yards and fade to oblivion. The evanescence of the spoken word went without saying. So fleeting was speech that the rare phenomenon of the echo, a sound heard once and then again, seemed a sort of magic.” [James Gleick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-gleick/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Writing preserves knowledge beyond the fleeting nature of speech, allowing ideas to travel across time and space. **In simple terms:** Writing keeps ideas alive beyond speech. Key Takeaway Use writing to capture and share ideas. Themes communication memory technology legacy Mood reflective analytical Type philosophical informational When to use this quote - academic research - personal journaling - digital archiving Key Concepts information theory ephemerality Questions to Reflect On - What ideas have you lost without writing? - How does digital media change this dynamic? A Different Perspective Writing cannot fully replace the immediacy of spoken interaction. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Communication](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/communication/) [Language](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/language/) [Magic](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/magic/) [Oblivion](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/oblivion/) [Phenomenon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/phenomenon/) [Sound](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sound/) [Space](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/space/) [Speech](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/speech/) [Spoken word](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/spoken-word/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) [Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/) ## Related quotes > [Writing is communication, not self-expression. Nobody in this world wants to read your diary except your mother.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-peck/writing-is-communication-not-self-expression-nobody-in-this-world/) [Richard Peck](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-peck/) > [I don't see writing as a communication of something already discovered, as "truths" already known. Rather, I see writing as a job of experiment.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-stafford/i-don-t-see-writing-as-a-communication-of-something-already/) [William Stafford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-stafford/) > [Writing is a communication.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/theodore-sturgeon/writing-is-a-communication/) [Theodore Sturgeon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/theodore-sturgeon/) > [All writing is communication; creative writing is communication through revelation-it is the Self-escaping into the open.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/e-b-white/all-writing-is-communication-creative-writing-is-communication/) [E. B. White](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/e-b-white/) > [Writing has nothing to do with communication between person and person, only with communication between different parts of a person's mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rebecca-west/writing-has-nothing-to-do-with-communication-between-person-and/) [Rebecca West](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rebecca-west/) > [The best part of writing is not the communication of knowledge to other people, but the acquisition and synthesizing of knowledge for oneself.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ta-nehisi-coates/the-best-part-of-writing-is-not-the-communication-of-knowledge-to/) [Ta-Nehisi Coates](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ta-nehisi-coates/) > [“By their dependence on the spoken word for information, people were drawn together into a tribal mesh . . . the spoken word is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-gleick/by-their-dependence-on-the-spoken-word-for-information-people-were/) [James Gleick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-gleick/) > [Evanescence fans aren't the popular kids in school. 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It is mine and it's…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amy-lee/i-am-evanescence-i-am-the-only-original-member-i-have-basically-hired/) [Amy Lee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amy-lee/) > [“There is one true property of romantic love: it never stays - evanescence is a part of the nature of an infatuated love state.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/irvin-d-yalom/there-is-one-true-property-of-romantic-love-it-never-stays/) [Irvin D. Yalom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/irvin-d-yalom/) > [Only imagination that towers can reproduce evanescence and render rigidity flexible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marianne-moore/only-imagination-that-towers-can-reproduce-evanescence-and-render/) [Marianne Moore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marianne-moore/) > [I got to work with David Hodges, who used to be in Evanescence, on some songs. 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The ending to my resplendence is much more divine, when it's singing a sweet…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lionel-suggs/when-i-usually-outshine-the-light-i-look-for-evanescence-the-ending/) [Lionel Suggs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lionel-suggs/) > [“It didn’t matter what he’d said or done in life, in death he was innocent.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/callie-hunter/it-didn-t-matter-what-he-d-said-or-done-in-life-in-death-he-was/) [Callie Hunter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/callie-hunter/) ## More by James Gleick > [When the Lilliputians first saw Gulliver's watch, that "wonderful kind of engine...a globe, half silver and half of some transparent metal," they identified it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-gleick/when-the-lilliputians-first-saw-gulliver-s-watch-that-wonderful-kind/) [James Gleick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-gleick/) > [You know, entropy is associated thermodynamically, in systems involving heat, with disorder. 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Smashing heads does not open minds.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/deborah-tannen/in-dialogue-there-is-opposition-yes-but-no-head-on-collision-smashing/) [Deborah Tannen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/deborah-tannen/) > [A dialogue is very important. It is a form of communication in which question and answer continue till a question is left without an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jiddu-krishnamurti/a-dialogue-is-very-important-it-is-a-form-of-communication-in-which/) [Jiddu Krishnamurti](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jiddu-krishnamurti/) > [I get afraid of the dark if I'm in a great deal of dark, and I have to move around inside of that fear...…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emil-ferris/i-get-afraid-of-the-dark-if-i-m-in-a-great-deal-of-dark-and-i-have-to/) [Emil Ferris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emil-ferris/) > [I've been in a serious conversation with one of my children, and a fan has come up. 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