Quote of Inspiration

I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Atilla and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.

Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar



Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Quote 6 of 52

As I was unable to begin this week with a quote, I figure I should get on with it and at least end the week with a quote. I am only now getting over an awful cold/sinus infection that I will blame on two things: air travel and the fact that my body is obviously boycotting my return to the US. I blame the hives on this as well, even if they're getting better and my face is at least hive-free as of today. Anyway, the quote..........

I spent the first four days of my trip abroad in Paris, and while in Paris I spent a good deal of time drinking coffee, eating bread and reading Hemingway. I read, of course, A Moveable Feast, and this is my favorite quote from the book:


I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, "Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know."


I love this quote obviously as an aspiring writer, but I love it just as much in the context of life in general. I think that as we age, we come to appreciate the value of truth and we have less patience with or interest in falseness and/or facade. I find a certain freedom in being myself, and as I age, there is less fear surrounding truth, particularly as it applies to myself.

I love the last bit of Hemingway's quote: Write the truest sentence you know.

I think that I will apply it to life in general: be the truest person you know.

MamaP

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