literature quotes

Having discovered value, the artist feels deeply that it must be shared and seen. The beauty of the thing remaining forever unnoticed by others would be too painful for the artist to bear. The artist understands that keeping this gem private would not be to gain something but to suffer a terrible loss.

The beauty that is presently secret calls out to be shared. If it is not shared, it will eat away at the artist, diminishing their ability to function and eventually consuming their entire life. The only way to prevent this terrible outcome is to give the secret away.

Several outcomes are then possible. Perhaps the other decides they are no longer interested in the conversation and they disengage. Perhaps they conclude their arguments are not as strong as they thought and they decide to think it over. Perhaps they even admit they got something wrong or made a mistake. But regardless of what happens, I'm inclined to declare victory. For in no case have I given up any ground. Instead, I feel reassured by the strength of my knowledge and its ability to persuade.

But has anything actually changed? I might have introduced enough doubt for the other to reconsider their position. They might reflect on what I've presented and reach a new conclusion. But I can't directly change someone's beliefs simply by countering them with facts and evidence or berating them with arguments. If their beliefs change, it will be because they decide to judge the matter differently.

But when there is romance everything changes. Romance means tension between two living beings, each pulling the other in its own way, each striving for the life it desperately wants. The intricacy of the tension means that something new and exciting is always happening.

The two living beings that are romantically entwined are not always people. She has had a profound romance with nature since she was a little girl. It exists in the tension between her and the natural world that is not her, and the ways it works with her and against her — the heat of the sun, the brisk north wind, the shrill cries of the seagulls, the rain, falling, falling.