CURATED COLLECTION

Finding Meaning in Life

Meaning is not found — it is made, painstakingly, out of what you choose to love and do.

27 quotes found

“
Genius is the capacity to feel pain.

—F. Scott FitzgeraldNovelist & Essayist

Early Modern ERA • North America

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A novel is a total lie, but it is also a truth deeper than reality.

—Mario Vargas LlosaNovelist

Late Modern ERA • Latin America

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Misery is a form of inverted beauty.

—Diamela EltitNovelist, Essayist & Theorist

Late Modern ERA • Latin America

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There is always something to love. And if there is not, create it.

—Lorraine HansberryPlaywright & Activist

Post-War ERA • North America

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What is poetry which does not save nations or people?

—Czesław MiłoszPoet, Novelist & Essayist

Post-War ERA • Eastern Europe

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Art tells the truth even when it lies.

—Biyi BandelePlaywright & Novelist

Digital Age ERA • West Africa

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I would hurl words into this darkness and they would echo back, but not in hate, but in wonder.

—Richard WrightNovelist & Critic

Early Modern ERA • North America

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I write because I don't know how to live any other way.

—Ferreira GullarPoet & Critic

Late Modern ERA • Latin America

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I am a poet, who sees the world whole, in total.

—Bohumil HrabalWriter & King

Post-War ERA • Eastern Europe

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We are nothing if we are not creative.

—Carlos BulosanWriter & Activist

Early Modern ERA • Southeast Asia

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To tell the truth, I had to be a liar first, a storyteller.

—Terese Marie MailhotAuthor

Digital Age ERA • North America

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Stories are how we make sense of chaos, how we find meaning in a world gone mad.

—Manjula PadmanabhanAuthor & Playwright

Contemporary ERA • South Asia

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Writing is also not speaking. It is silence. It is the cry.

—Marguerite DurasNovelist

Post-War ERA • Western Europe

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I write for the happy few who have time and patience to read carefully.

—Jean RhysNovelist

Post-War ERA • Caribbean

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The writer is a public menace, a private nightmare.

—Dambudzo MarecheraWriter

Post-War ERA • Southern Africa

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To live without passion is merely to exist, not truly to live.

—Victoria OcampoWriter & Intellectual

Post-War ERA • Latin America

“
I spent my life in libraries, but my true teacher was the trash.

—Bohumil HrabalWriter & King

Post-War ERA • Eastern Europe

“
All of my books are one book. They are all bits of the same story.

—Jean RhysNovelist

Post-War ERA • Caribbean

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A film that does not disturb you has not told you the truth.

—Yasmin AhmadAuthor & Thinker

Contemporary ERA • Southeast Asia

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A novel is a meditation on existence.

—Milan KunderaNovelist

Late Modern ERA • Eastern Europe

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