There is something about the literary life that repels me, all this desperate building of castles on cobwebs, the long-drawn acrimonious struggle to make something important which we all know will be gone forever in a few years, the miasma of failure which is to me almost as offensive as the cheap gaudiness of popular success.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The author dislikes the literary life and the struggle to make things important that will soon be forgotten.
- In plain terms
- He finds writing a pointless struggle against inevitable oblivion.
- What can you take from it?
- Creating art can feel futile when nothing lasts forever.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does art matter if it fades?
- How do you find meaning in work?
Another view
The view is very pessimistic about the value of art.
More from Raymond Chandler
Love interest nearly always weakens a mystery because it introduces a type of suspense that is antagonistic to the detective's struggle to solve the problem. I…
Permalink to quote #4 The private detective of fiction is a fantastic creation who acts and speaks like a real man. He can be completely realistic in every sense but one, that one s…
Permalink to quote #6 The solution, once revealed, must seem to have been inevitable. At least half of all the mystery novels published violate this law.
Permalink to quote #3
Related quotes
The secret story is the one we'll never know, although we're living it from day to day, thinking we're alive, thinking we've got it all under control and the s…
Roberto BolanoRoberto Bolano quote #1 I regard criticism as an art, and if in this country and in this age it is practiced with honesty, it is no more remunerative than the work of an avant-garde f…
Pauline KaelPauline Kael quote #1 Le monde est fait pour aboutir a un beau livre.
Stephane MallarmeStephane Mallarme quote #4