“To me, literature is a calling, even a kind of salvation. It connects me with an enterprise that is over 2,000 years old. What do we have from the past? Art and thought. That's what lasts. That's what continues to feed people and give them an idea of something better.”

—  Susan Sontag

"Susan Sontag Finds Romance," interview by Leslie Garis, The New York Times (2 August 1992)
Context: To me, literature is a calling, even a kind of salvation. It connects me with an enterprise that is over 2,000 years old. What do we have from the past? Art and thought. That's what lasts. That's what continues to feed people and give them an idea of something better. A better state of one's feelings or simply the idea of a silence in one's self that allows one to think or to feel. Which to me is the same.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "To me, literature is a calling, even a kind of salvation. It connects me with an enterprise that is over 2,000 years ol…" by Susan Sontag?
Susan Sontag photo
Susan Sontag168
American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist 1933–2004

Related quotes

Mario Vargas Llosa photo

“In my case, literature is a kind of revenge. It's something that gives me what real life can't give me - all the adventures, all the suffering. All the experiences I can only live in the imagination, literature completes.”

Mario Vargas Llosa (1936) Peruvian writer, politician, journalist, and essayist

Jan Smuts photo

“We do not want new orders. What the world wants is an old order of 2,000 years ago – the order of the man of Galilee.”

Jan Smuts (1870–1950) military leader, politician and statesman from South Africa

On "a post-war new world order" envisaged by the Allies during World War II, as cited in Antony Lentin, 2010, Jan Smuts – Man of courage and vision, p. 144. ISBN 978-1-86842-390-3

Wally Lamb photo

“That time we separated was my idea. I thought, well, I'm fifty years old and there might be someone else out there. People waste their happiness - that's what makes me sad. Everyone's so scared to be happy.”

Wally Lamb book She's Come Undone

Source: She's Come Undone

Biz Stone photo

“Many iconic features of Twitter have been created over the years by listening and watching what people who use Twitter do with it and then working to make it easier and better for them—we still do this today.”

Biz Stone (1974) American blogger; co-founder of Twitter

Twitter Blog: "The hashtag at 10 years young" https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/topics/product/2017/the-hashtag-at-ten-years-young.html (23 August 2017)

Nalo Hopkinson photo

“…Even though we talk about race a lot in the literature, there’s still this idea of “Well, if we make this person blue and give them pointy ears, then we don’t have to actually talk about what’s happening in the real world.””

Nalo Hopkinson (1960) Jamaican Canadian writer

And those of us who live in racialized bodies feel that lack, we feel that erasure, so yes, there was something quite deliberate in my doing half the speech as an alien. <br class="br">On race still being a taboo topic in the world of science fiction in “Interview: Nalo Hopkinson” http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/nonfiction/interview-nalo-hopkinson/ in Lightspeed (June 2013)

Lisa Ling photo

“When did an old white guy yelling at me, telling me what to think become news? What gives him the right to tell me what to think? When was the last time he was in Iraq or Afghanistan or Sri Lanka… or anywhere that didn't have a beach?”

Lisa Ling (1973) American journalist, television presenter, and author

Syracuse University speech, April 19, 2006. http://blogs.mediavillage.com/tv_maven/archives/2006/04/lisa_ling_on_th.html

Andy Goldsworthy photo

“One of the beauties of art is that it reflects an artist's entire life. What I've learned over the past 30 years is really beginning to inform what I make. I hope that process continues until I die.”

Andy Goldsworthy (1956) British sculptor and photographer

He's got the whole world in his hands, The Telegraph (24 March 2007)

Frits Zernike photo

“I am impressed by the great limitations of the human mind. How quick are we to learn, that is, to imitate what others have done or thought before. And how slow to understand, that is, to see the deeper connections. Slowest of all, however, are we in inventing new connections or even in applying old ideas in a new field.”

Frits Zernike (1888–1966) Dutch physicist

His Nobel lecture, &quot;How I Discovered Phase Contrast&quot; (11December 1953) http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1953/zernike-lecture.html

Lawrence M. Krauss photo

“My area of research is something that in all fairness has no practical usability whatsoever and the thing is I'm often asked to apologize for that. It is interesting to me that people ask 'what's the point of doing that if it's not useful?' But they never ask that, or do they very rarely ask that about art or literature or music. Those things are not gonna produce a better toaster.”

Lawrence M. Krauss (1954) American physicist

Interview with Richard Dawkins (5:12) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLctxRf7duU

Aron Ra photo

“People that make up stuff and call it truth have the power to imagine all kinds of nonsense. But that’s what it is all about. It really is make believe, and it took me the longest time to figure that out. I thought, honestly, naively, even into middle age. I was in my 30s before I realised there were some people who do not believe what they do for a reason.”

Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast

Exclusive Interview with Aron Ra – Public Speaker, Atheist Vlogger, and Activist https://conatusnews.com/interview-aron-ra-past-president-atheist-alliance-america/, Conatus News (May 17, 2017)

Related topics