--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I was fascinated by quotations and lists…" description: "\"I was fascinated by quotations and lists. And then I noticed that other people were fascinated by quotations and lists: people as different as Borges a..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d32/susan-sontag-332_borges_i-was-fascinated-by-quotations-and-lists_2208096.jpg" --- # I was fascinated by quotations and lists. And then I… ![“I was fascinated by quotations and lists. And then I noticed that other people were fascinated by quotations and lists: people as different as Borges and Walter Benjamin, Novalis and Godard.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d32/susan-sontag-332_borges_i-was-fascinated-by-quotations-and-lists_2208096.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d32/susan-sontag-332_borges_i-was-fascinated-by-quotations-and-lists_2208096.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d32/susan-sontag-332_borges_i-was-fascinated-by-quotations-and-lists_2208096.jpg) > “I was fascinated by quotations and lists. And then I noticed that other people were fascinated by quotations and lists: people as different as Borges and Walter Benjamin, Novalis and Godard.” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Quotations and lists attract diverse thinkers, from Borges to Walter Benjamin. **In simple terms:** Lists and quotes fascinate many intellectuals. Key Takeaway Use curated lists to spark interdisciplinary curiosity. Themes literature philosophy interdisciplinary curation Mood inquisitive reflective Type analytical inspirational When to use this quote - teaching - research - creative writing Key Concepts quotations list-making intellectual history Questions to Reflect On - How do lists shape thought? - What value do quotations hold? A Different Perspective Overemphasis on lists may limit deeper analysis. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [People](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/people/) ## Related quotes > [Giorgio Agamben is possibly the most delicate and probing thinker since Walter Benjamin.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/avital-ronell/giorgio-agamben-is-possibly-the-most-delicate-and-probing-thinker/) [Avital Ronell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/avital-ronell/) > [Walter Benjamin talks about art losing its original "aura" in an age of mechanical reproduction. In writing memoir, we're taking something that happened in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lucas-mann/walter-benjamin-talks-about-art-losing-its-original-aura-in-an-age-of/) [Lucas Mann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lucas-mann/) > [“Reading Proust nearly silenced Virginia Woolf. She loved his novel, but loved it rather too much. There wasn’t enough wrong with it—a crushing recognition…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alain-de-botton/reading-proust-nearly-silenced-virginia-woolf-she-loved-his-novel-but/) [Alain de Botton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alain-de-botton/) > [Bertrand Russell said, 'Electricity is not a thing like St. Paul's Cathedral; it is a way in which things behave.' And it's not 'they'…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mary-jo-bang/bertrand-russell-said-electricity-is-not-a-thing-like-st-paul-s/) [Mary Jo Bang](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mary-jo-bang/) > [“Not to find one’s way in a city may well be uninteresting and banal. It requires ignorance—nothing more," says the twentieth-century philosopher-essayist Walter Benjamin.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rebecca-solnit/not-to-find-one-s-way-in-a-city-may-well-be-uninteresting-and-banal/) [Rebecca Solnit](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rebecca-solnit/) > [An exciting and yet highly lucid account of the formation and significance of Karl Kraus's modernist journalism, an activity that Walter Benjamin and Gershom…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/istvan-deak/an-exciting-and-yet-highly-lucid-account-of-the-formation-and/) Istvan Deak > [ At any rate, nothing was more characteristic of him \[Walter Benjamin\] in the thirties than the little notebooks with black covers which he always… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hannah-arendt/at-any-rate-nothing-was-more-characteristic-of-him-walter-benjamin-in/) [Hannah Arendt](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hannah-arendt/) > [“(Mind you, according to Walter Benjamin, the twentieth century’s great philosopher of collecting, browsing and what we’d now call vintage shopping, ‘the non-reading of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simon-reynolds/mind-you-according-to-walter-benjamin-the-twentieth-century-s-great/) [Simon Reynolds](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simon-reynolds/) > [Walter Benjamin has this notion of the angel of history and in a way that's paradoxical itself. We don't have angels in history anymore.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steve-stern/walter-benjamin-has-this-notion-of-the-angel-of-history-and-in-a-way/) [Steve Stern](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steve-stern/) > [“The research projects that I have recently undertaken have shown me that our modern societies, which claim to be secular, are, on the contrary,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-research-projects-that-i-have-recently-undertaken-have-shown-me/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“It" is the idea of him or her that resides in us--inspired by the "Something" in them, as Pope has it, "That gives us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-roach/it-is-the-idea-of-him-or-her-that-resides-in-us-inspired-by-the/) Joseph Roach > [“Briskly aestheticizing politics, this predecessor of today’s live-streaming militants outlined a likely endgame for a world in which, as Walter Benjamin wrote, the self-alienation…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pankaj-mishra/briskly-aestheticizing-politics-this-predecessor-of-today-s-live/) [Pankaj Mishra](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pankaj-mishra/) > [“The difference between a person who appreciates books, even loves them, and a collector is not only degrees of affection, I realized. For the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/allison-hoover-bartlett/the-difference-between-a-person-who-appreciates-books-even-loves-them/) [Allison Hoover Bartlett](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/allison-hoover-bartlett/) > [The German philosopher Walter Benjamin had the curious notion that we could change the past. For most of us, the past is fixed while…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/terry-eagleton/the-german-philosopher-walter-benjamin-had-the-curious-notion-that-we/) [Terry Eagleton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/terry-eagleton/) > [“Cities have often been compared to language: you can read a city, it’s said, as you read a book. But the metaphor can be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/valeria-luiselli/cities-have-often-been-compared-to-language-you-can-read-a-city-it-s-2/) [Valeria Luiselli](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/valeria-luiselli/) ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/unfortunately-moral-beauty-in-art-like-physical-beauty-in-a-person-is/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/like-the-collector-the-photographer-is-animated-by-a-passion-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Why not eliminate schooling between age 12-16? It’s biologically + psychologically too turbulent a time to be cooped up inside, made to sit all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/why-not-eliminate-schooling-between-age-12-16-it-s-biologically/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-photograph-people-is-to-violate-them-by-seeing-them-as-they-never/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/one-set-of-messages-of-the-society-we-live-in-is-consume-grow-do-what/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Currently intellectuals in Western Europe and North America are extremely demoralized and shaken by the rise of a virulent conservative tendency (which some have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/currently-intellectuals-in-western-europe-and-north-america-are/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Borges quotes > [I'm educating myself more about world poetry. I know a lot about contemporary American poetry, so I felt I needed to learn more about…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/allison-joseph/i-m-educating-myself-more-about-world-poetry-i-know-a-lot-about/) [Allison Joseph](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/allison-joseph/) > [ \[Jorge Luis Borges\] had short stories, and I was trying to learn how to write short stories, and then he had these things in… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sandra-cisneros/jorge-luis-borges-had-short-stories-and-i-was-trying-to-learn-how-to/) [Sandra Cisneros](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sandra-cisneros/) > [ I would say that Edgar Allan Poe, \[Georges\] Perec, Thomas Pynchon, and \[Jorge Luis\] Borges are all boy-writers. These are writers who take... a… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-auster/i-would-say-that-edgar-allan-poe-georges-perec-thomas-pynchon-and/) [Paul Auster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-auster/) > [“As Borges has taught us, all the books in the library are contemporary. Great poems are like granaries: they are always ready to enlarge…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-h-gass/as-borges-has-taught-us-all-the-books-in-the-library-are-contemporary/) [William H. Gass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-h-gass/) > [“Perhaps, as Borges concludes in his story, it is forgetting, not remembering, that is the essence of what makes us human.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joshua-foer/perhaps-as-borges-concludes-in-his-story-it-is-forgetting-not/) [Joshua Foer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joshua-foer/) > [“Oh, Buenos Aires, I have traveled around the world, but I’ve never been separated from you,” said Argentine poet Jorge Luis Borges. And Saint…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alejandro-jodorowsky/oh-buenos-aires-i-have-traveled-around-the-world-but-i-ve-never-been/) [Alejandro Jodorowsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alejandro-jodorowsky/) > [“Si me quieren buscar, búsquenme en los libros. No los lean, por favor, si no obtienen placer.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jorge-luis-borges/si-me-quieren-buscar-b-squenme-en-los-libros-no-los-lean-por-favor-si/) [Jorge Luis Borges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jorge-luis-borges/) > [Nazi Literature in the Americas, a wicked invented encyclopedia of imaginary fascist writers and literary tastemakers, is Bolaño playing with sharp, twisting knives. As…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stacey-d-erasmo/nazi-literature-in-the-americas-a-wicked-invented-encyclopedia-of/) Stacey D'Erasmo > [“The hours I spent in this anachronistic, bibliophile, Anglophile retreat were in surreal contrast to the shrieking horror show that was being enacted in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-hours-i-spent-in-this-anachronistic-bibliophile-anglophile/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [ “This book first arose out of a passage in \[Jorge Luis\] Borges, out of the laughter that shattered, as I read the passage, all… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-foucault/this-book-first-arose-out-of-a-passage-in-jorge-luis-borges-out-of/) [Michel Foucault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-foucault/) > [“Sanjala sam da sam J.L.Borges, koji je nekim čudom uskrsnuo, progledao, lupio se dlanom po čelu i brzo pretvorio u - Paula Coelha.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dubravka-ugre-i/sanjala-sam-da-sam-j-l-borges-koji-je-nekim-udom-uskrsnuo-progledao/) [Dubravka Ugrešić](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dubravka-ugre-i/) > [One should read Borges more.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roberto-bola-o/one-should-read-borges-more/) [Roberto Bolano](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roberto-bola-o/) > [I was an eccentric teenager in suburban New Jersey, in a town mostly interested in sports, popularity, and clothes. A fan of Jorge Luis…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/caterina-fake/i-was-an-eccentric-teenager-in-suburban-new-jersey-in-a-town-mostly/) [Caterina Fake](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/caterina-fake/) > [“Borges is particularly stimulating to a man who works in the cinema, because the unusual thing about his writing is that it is like…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/federico-fellini/borges-is-particularly-stimulating-to-a-man-who-works-in-the-cinema/) [Federico Fellini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/federico-fellini/) > [From Borges, those wonderful gaucho stories from which I learned that you can be specific as to a time and place and culture and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/august-wilson/from-borges-those-wonderful-gaucho-stories-from-which-i-learned-that/) [August Wilson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/august-wilson/) Browse all 64 Borges quotes ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I was fascinated by quotations and lists. And then I noticed that other people were fascinated by quotations and lists: people as different as Borges and Walter Benjamin, Novalis and Godard.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-was-fascinated-by-quotations-and-lists-and-then-i-noticed-that/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Borges" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-was-fascinated-by-quotations-and-lists-and-then-i-noticed-that/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d32/susan-sontag-332_borges_i-was-fascinated-by-quotations-and-lists_2208096.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d32/susan-sontag-332_borges_i-was-fascinated-by-quotations-and-lists_2208096.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d32/susan-sontag-332_borges_i-was-fascinated-by-quotations-and-lists_2208096.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I was fascinated by quotations and lists. And then I noticed that other people were fascinated by quotations…” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Susan Sontag", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "I was fascinated by quotations and...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-was-fascinated-by-quotations-and-lists-and-then-i-noticed-that/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-was-fascinated-by-quotations-and-lists-and-then-i-noticed-that/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```