Nowadays When A Person Lives Somewhere, In A Neighborhood, The Place Is Not Certified For Him. More Than Likely He Will Live There Sadly And The Emptiness Which Is Inside Him Will Expand Until It Evacuates The Entire Neighborhood. But If He Sees A Movie Which Shows His Very Neighborhood, It Becomes Possible For Him To Live, For A Time At Least, As A Person Who Is Somewhere And Not Anywhere.

-Walker Percy

Please Wait....
Translating....

Nowadays When A Person

Walker Percy

Topic

Old Neighborhood

Emptiness

Shows

More From Walker Percy

What Needs To Be Discharged Is The Intolerable Tenderness Of The Past, The Past Gone And Grieved Over And Never Made Sense Of. Music Ransoms Us From The Past, Declares An Amnesty, Brackets And Sets Aside The Old Puzzles. Sing A New Song. Start A New Life, Get A Girl, Look Into Her Shadowy Eyes, Smile.

Girl

Song

Eye

Hatred Strikes Me As One Of The Few Signs Of Life Remaining In The World. This Is Another Thing About The World Which Is Upsidedown: All The Friendly And Likable People Seem Dead To Me; Only The Haters Seem Alive.

People

Hatred

Friendly

What Nuns Don't Realize Is That They Look Better In Nun Clothes Than J.c. Penney Pantsuits.

Clothes

Looks

Superstitions

Peace Is Only Better Than War When It's Not Hell Too. War Being Hell Makes Sense.

War

Politics

Hell

Bad Books Always Lie. They Lie Most Of All About The Human Condition.

Lying

Book

Human Condition

Have You Noticed That Only In Time Of Illness Or Disaster Or Death Are People Real? I Remember At The Time Of The Wreck-- People Were So Kind And Helpful And Solid. Everyone Pretended That Our Lives Until That Moment Had Been Every Bit As Real As The Moment Itself And That The Future Must Be Real Too, When The Truth Was That Our Reality Had Been Purchased Only By Lyell's Death. In Another Hour Or So We Had All Faded Out Again And Gone Our Dim Ways.

Real

People

Gone

Life Is Fits And Starts, Mostly Fits.

Life Is

Fit

Children Notice Things First, People Later.

Children

People

Firsts

In This World Goodness Is Destined To Be Defeated. But A Man Must Go Down Fighting. That Is The Victory. To Do Anything Less Is To Be Less Than A Man.

Fighting

Men

Victory

I Like To Eat Crawfish And Drink Beer. That's Despair?

Beer

Despair

Drink

A Repetition Is The Re-enactment Of Past Experience Toward The End Of Isolating The Time Segment Which Has Lapsed In Order That It, The Lapsed Time, Can Be Savored Of Itself And Without The Usual Adulteration Of Events That Clog Time Like Peanuts In Brittle.

Past

Order

Usual

Why Is There Such A Gap Between Nonspeaking Animals And Speaking Man, When There Is No Other Such Gap In Nature?

Animal

Men

Gaps

Being Uneducated Is No Guarantee Against Being Obnoxious.

Guarantees

Obnoxious

Uneducated

The Difference Between A Non-suicide And An Ex-suicide Leaving The House For Work, At Eight O'clock On An Ordinary Morning: The Non-suicide Is A Little Traveling Suck Of Care, Sucking Care With Him From The Past And Being Sucked Toward Care In The Future. His Breath Is High In His Chest. The Ex-suicide Opens His Front Door, Sits Down On The Steps, And Laughs. Since He Has The Option Of Being Dead, He Has Nothing To Lose By Being Alive. It Is Good To Be Alive. He Goes To Work Because He Doesn't Have To.

Suicide

Morning

Past

Consciously Cultivate The Ordinary.

Ordinary

I Couldn't Stand It. I Still Can't Stand It. I Can't Stand The Way Things Are. I Cannot Tolerate This Age.

Age

Way

Tolerate

Nobody But A Southerner Knows The Wrenching Rinsing Sadness Of The Cities Of The North.

Sadness

Cities

Knows

I Had Discovered That A Person Does Not Have To Be This Or Be That Or Be Anything, Not Even Oneself. One Is Free.

Fun

Doe

Persons

A Novel Is What You Call Something That Won't Sell If You Call It Poems Or Short Stories.

Fiction

Stories

Novel

I Have Discovered That Most People Have No One To Talk To, No One, That Is, Who Really Wants To Listen. When It Does At Last Dawn On A Man That You Really Want To Hear About His Business, The Look That Comes Over His Face Is Something To See.

Men

People

Dawn

Since Grief Only Aggravates Your Loss, Grieve Not For What Is Past.

Heartbreak

Grief

Loss

Genius Consists Not In Making Great Discoveries, But In Seeing The Connection Between Small Discoveries.

Discovery

Connections

Genius

My Mother Refused To Let Me Fail. So I Insisted.

Mother

Failing

Adolescence

Why Has The South Produced So Many Good Writers? Because We Got Beat.

Beats

Good Writers

South

Why Did God Make Woman So Beautiful And Man With Such A Loving Heart?

Beautiful

Heart

Men

Free People Have A Serious Problem With Place, Being In A Place, Using Up A Place, Deciding Which New Place To Rotate To. Americans Ricochet Around The United States Like Billiard Balls.

People

United States

Balls

I Sometimes Think Novelists Write About Sex In Order To Avoid Boring Themselves To Death.

Sex

Writing

Thinking

Bourbon Does For Me What The Piece Of Cake Did For Proust.

Cake

Alcohol

Pieces

Fiction Doesn’t Tell Us Something We Don’t Know, It Tells Us Something We Know But Don’t Know That We Know.

Fiction

Knows

There Is No Pain On This Earth Like Seeing The Same Woman Look At Another Man The Way She Once Looked At You.

Pain

Men

Looks

For The World Is Broken, Sundered, Busted Down The Middle, Self Ripped From Self And Man Pasted Back Together As Mythical Monster, Half Angel, Half Beast, But No Man...some Day A Man Will Walk Into My Office As A Ghost Or Beast Or Ghost-beast And Walk Out As A Man, Which Is To Say Sovereign Wanderer, Lordly Exile, Worker And Waiter And Watcher.

Angel

Men

Self

This Midwestern Sky Is The Nakedest Loneliest Sky In America. To Escape It, People Live Inside And Underground.

Sky

America

People

In A Word, The Consumer Of Mass Culture Is Lonely, Not Only Lonely, But Spiritually Impoverished.

Faith

Lonely

Inspiration

Not To Be Onto Something Is To Be In Despair.

Despair

What Is The Nature Of The Search? You Ask. Really It Is Very Simple, At Least For A Fellow Like Me; So Simple That It Is Easily Overlooked. The Search Is What Anyone Would Undertake If He Were Not Sunk In The Everydayness Of His Own Life. This Morning, For Example, I Felt As If I Had Come To Myself On A Strange Island.

Morning

Simple

Islands

Boredom Is The Self Being Stuffed With Itself.

Home May Be Where The Heart Is But It's No Place To Spend Wednesday Afternoon.

Home

Heart

Afternoon

Why Is It That One Can Look At A Lion Or A Planet Or An Owl Or At Someone's Finger As Long As One Pleases, But Looking Into The Eyes Of Another Person Is, If Prolonged Past A Second, A Perilous Affair?

Eye

Past

Long

How Did It Happen That Now He Could See Everything So Clearly. Something Had Given Him Leave To Live In The Present. Not Once In His Entire Life Had He Come To Rest In The Quiet Center Of Himself But Had Forever Cast Himself From Some Dark Past He Could Not Remember To A Future That Did Not Exist. Not Once Had He Been Present For His Life. So His Life Had Passed Like A Dream. Is It Possible For People To Miss Their Lives The Way One Can Miss A Plane?

Dream

Dark

Past

Nothing Remains But Desire, And Desire Comes Howling Down Elysian Fields Like A Mistral.

Desire

Fields

Remains

In This World, Goodness Is Destined To Be Defeated.

World

Defeated

Goodness

It Is Not Merely The Truth Of Science That Makes It Beautiful, But Its Simplicity.

Beautiful

Science

Simplicity

As For Hobbies, People With Stimulating Hobbies Suffer From The Most Noxious Of Despairs Since They Are Tranquilized In Their Despair.

People

Suffering

Despair

A Good Title Should Be Like A Good Metaphor. It Should Intrigue Without Being Too Baffling Or Too Obvious.

Writing

Titles

Metaphor

The Search Is What Anyone Would Undertake If He Were Not Sunk In The Everydayness Of His Own Life. To Become Aware Of The Possibility Of The Search Is To Be Onto Something. Not To Be Onto Something Is To Be In Despair.

Spiritual

Despair

Possibility

You Live In A Deranged Age, More Deranged Than Usual Because In Spite Of Great Scientific And Technological Advances, Man Has Not The Faintest Idea Of Who He Is Or What He Is Doing.

Life

Men

Ideas

I Don't Like To Be Described As A Southern Writer. The Danger Is, If You're Described As A Southern Writer, You Might Be Thought Of As Someone Who Writes About A Picturesque Local Scene Like Uncle Tom's Cabin, Gone With The Wind, Something Like That.

Uncles

Writing

Wind

Jews Wait For The Lord, Protestants Sing Hymns To Him, Catholics Say Mass And Eat Him.

Hymns

Waiting

Catholic

Have You Noticed That Only In Time Of Illness Or Disaster Or Death Are People Real?

Real

People

Illness

Maybe There Are Times When An Honest Hatred Serves Us Better Than Love Corrupted By Sentimentality, Meretriciousness, Sententiousness, Cuteness.

Hate

Hatred

Honest

The Present Age Is Demented. It Is Possessed By A Sense Of Dislocation, A Loss Of Personal Identity, An Alternating Sentimentality And Rage Which, In An Individual Patient, Could Be Characterized As Dementia.

Loss

Identity

Age

It Makes People Nervous For One To Step Out Of One's Role.

People

Roles

Steps

I Am Not Ashamed To Use The Word Class. I Will Also Plead Guilty To Another Charge. The Charge Is That People Belonging To My Class Think They're Better Than Other People. You're Damn Right We're Better. We're Better Because We Do Not Shirk Our Obligations Either To Ourselves Or To Others. . . .we Live By Our Lights, We Die By Our Lights, And Whoever The High Gods May Be, We'll Look Them In The Eye Without Apology.

Eye

Apology

Thinking

The Mystery Lies In The Here And Now. The Mystery Is: What Is One To Do With Oneself? As You Get Older You Begin To Realize The Trick Time Is Playing, And That Unless You Do Something About It, The Passage Of Time Is Nothing But The Encroachment Of The Horrible Banality Of The Past On The Pure Future. The Past Devours The Future Like A Tape Recorder, Converting Pure Possibility Into Banality. The Present Is The Tape Head, The Mouth Of Time. Then Where Is The Mystery And Why Bother Kicking Through The Ashes? Because There Is A Clue In The Past.

Time

Lying

Past

You Can Get All A's And Still Flunk Life.

Education

School

Life Learning

The Enduring Is Something Which Must Be Accounted For. One Cannot Simply Shrug It Off.

Endure

Before, I Wandered As A Diversion. Now I Wander Seriously And Sit And Read As A Diversion.

Wander

Diversion

Classes? Categories? Was That What We Had Come To?

Class

Categories

Ignorance, If Recognized, Is Often More Fruitful Than The Appearance Of Knowledge.

Ignorance

Appearance

Ifs

Lord, Grant That My Work Increase Knowledge And Help Other Men. Failing That, Lord, Grant That It Will Not Lead To Man’s Destruction. Failing That, Lord, Grant That My Article In Brain Be Published Before The Destruction Takes Place.

Helping Others

Men

Brain

It Is Not A Bad Thing To Settle For The Little Way, Not The Big Search For The Big Happiness But The Sad Little Happiness Of Drinks And Kisses, A Good Little Car And A Warm Deep Thigh.

Kissing

Car

Littles

Your Discovery, As Best As I Can Determine, Is That There Is An Alternative Which No One Has Hit Upon. It Is That One Finding Oneself In One Of Life's Critical Situations Need Not After All Respond In One Of The Traditional Ways. No. One May Simply Default. Pass. Do As One Pleases, Shrug, Turn On One's Heel And Leave. Exit. Why After All Need One Act Humanly?

Discovery

May

Way

[in Art] You Are Telling The Reader Or The Listener Or The Viewer Something He Already Knows But Which He Doesn't Quite Know That He Knows, So That In The Action Of Communication He Experiences A Recognition, A Feeling That He Has Been There Before, A Shock Of Recognition.

Art

Communication

Feelings

Where There Is Chance Of Gain, There Is Also Chance Of Loss. Whenever One Courts Great Happiness, One Also Risks Malaise.

Loss

Risk

Gains

Like Many Young Men In The South, He Had Trouble Ruling Out The Possible. They Are Not Like An Immigrant's Son In Passaic Who Desires To Become A Dentist And That Is That. Southerners Have Trouble Ruling Out The Possible. What Happens To A... Man To Whom All Things Seem Possible And Every Course Of Action Open? Nothing Of Course.

Son

Men

Desire

But What Physician Has Not Had Patients Who Don't Make Any Sense At All? To Tell The Truth, They're Our Stock-in-trade. We Talk And Write About The Ones We Can Make Sense Of.

Writing

Physicians

Medical

Americans Are The Nicest, Most Generous, And Sentimental People On Earth. Yet Americans Have Killed More Unborn Children Than Any Nation In History.

Children

People

Earth

It Is Possible, However, That The Artist Is Both Thin-skinned And Prophetic And, Like The Canary Lowered Into The Mine Shaft To Test The Air, Has Caught A Whiff Of Something Lethal.

Artist

Air

Tests

Ooooh," Kate Groans, Kate Herself Now. "i'm So Afraid." "i Know." "what Am I Going To Do?" "you Mean Right Now?" "yes." "we'll Go To My Car. Then We'll Drive Down To The French Market And Get Some Coffee. Then We'll Go Home." "is Everything Going To Be All Right?" "yes." "tell Me. Say It." "everything Is Going To Be All Right.

Coffee

Home

Mean

Why Is It That No Other Species But Man Gets Bored? Under The Circumstances In Which A Man Gets Bored, A Dog Goes To Sleep.

Dog

Sleep

Men

But There Is Much To Be Said For Giving Up ... Grand Ambitions And Living The Most Ordinary Life Imaginable.

Giving Up

Ambition

Ordinary

If I Had The Choice Of Knowing The Truth Or Searching For The Truth, I'd Take The Search.

Knowing

Choices

Knowing The Truth

They All Think Any Minute I'm Going To Commit Suicide. What A Joke. The Truth Of Course Is The Exact Opposite: Suicide Is The Only Thing That Keeps Me Alive. Whenever Everything Else Fails, All I Have To Do Is Consider Suicide And In Two Seconds I'm As Cheerful As A Nitwit. But If I Could Not Kill Myself -- Ah Then, I Would. I Can Do Without Nembutal Or Murder Mysteries But Not Without Suicide.

Suicide

Thinking

Opposites

The Fact Is I Am Quite Happy In A Movie, Even A Bad Movie. Other People, So I Have Read, Treasure Memorable Moments In Their Lives.

Memorable

People

Treasure

Losing Hope Is Not So Bad. There's Something Worse: Losing Hope And Hiding It From Yourself.

Losing

Losing Hope

Hiding

Lucky Is The Man Who Does Not Secretly Believe That Every Possibility Is Open To Him.

Believe

Men

Doe

Whenever I Feel Bad, I Go To The Library And Read Controversial Periodicals. Though I Do Not Know Whether I Am A Liberal Or A Conservative, I Am Nevertheless Enlivened By The Hatred Which One Bears The Other. In Fact, This Hatred Strikes Me As One Of The Few Signs Of Life Remaining In The World.

Hatred

Library

World

For Some Time Now The Impression Has Been Growing Upon Me That Everyone Is Dead. It Happens When I Speak To People. In The Middle Of A Sentence It Will Come Over Me: Yes, Beyond A Doubt This Is Death. There Is Little To Do But Groan And Make An Excuse And Slip Away As Quickly As One Can.

People

Doubt

Growing

If Poets Often Commit Suicide, It Is Not Because Their Poems Are Bad But Because They Are Good. Whoever Heard Of A Bad Poet Committing Suicide? The Reader Is Only A Little Better Off. The Exhilaration Of A Good Poem Lasts Twenty Minutes, An Hour At Most. Unlike The Scientist, The Artist Has Reentry Problems That Are Frequent And Catastrophic.

Suicide

Artist

Twenties

To Become Aware Of The Possibility Of The Search Is To Be Onto Something.

Possibility

We Love Those Who Know The Worst Of Us And Don't Turn Their Face Away.

Love

Friendship

Real

One Of The Peculiar Ironies Of Being A Human Self In The Cosmos: A Stranger Approaching You In The Street Will In A Second's Glance See You Whole, Size You Up, Place You In A Way In Which You Cannot And Never Will, Even Though You Have Spent A Lifetime With Yourself, Live In The Century Of The Self, And Therefore Ought To Know Yourself Best Of All.

Self

Peculiar

Cosmos

Small Disconnected Facts, If You Take Note Of Them, Have A Way Of Becoming Connected.

Way

Facts

Becoming

The Conviction: I Will Not Tolerate This Age. The Freedom: The Freedom To Act On My Conviction. And I Will Act. No One Else Has Both The Conviction And The Freedom. Many Agree With Me, Have The Conviction, But Will Not Act. Some Act, Assassinate, Bomb, Burn, Etc., But They Are The Crazies. Crazy Acts By Crazy People. But What If One, Sober, Reasonable, And Honorable Man Should Act, And Act With Perfect Sobriety, Reason, And Honor? Then You Have The Beginning Of A New Age. We Shall Start A New Order Of Things.

Crazy

Men

Order

The So-called Sexual Revolution Is Not, As Advertised, A Liberation Of Sexual Behavior But Rather Its Reversal. In Former Days, Even Under Victoria, Sexual Intercourse Was The Natural End And Culmination Of Heterosexual Relations. Now One Begins With Genital Overtures Instead Of A Handshake, Then Waits To See What Will Turn Up (e.g., Might Become Friends Later). Like Dogs Greeting Each Other Nose To Tail And Tail To Nose.

Dog

Waiting

Tails

Suppose You Ask God For A Miracle And God Says Yes, Very Well. How Do You Live The Rest Of Your Life?

Miracle

Rest Of Your Life

Wells

Joy And Sadness Come By Turns.

Sadness

Joy

Turns

Other People, So I Have Read, Treasure Memorable Moments In Their Lives: The Time One Climbed The Parthenon At Sunrise, The Summer Night One Met A Lonely Girl In Central Park And Achieved With Her A Sweet And Natural Relationship, As They Say In Books. I Too Once Met A Girl In Central Park, But It Is Not Much To Remember. What I Remember Is The Time John Wayne Killed Three Men With A Carbine As He Was Falling To The Dusty Street In Stagecoach, And The Time The Kitten Found Orson Welles In The Doorway In The Third Man.

Girl

Summer

Lonely

Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.

2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.

2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.

2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.

3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.

3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.

3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.

4. Proper Usage of Quotes

4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.

4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.

4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

5. Common Mistakes to Avoid

5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.

5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.

5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.

6. Quotes in Different Contexts

6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.

6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.

6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.

7. Punctuation and Formatting

Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:

Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.

Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.

Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.

8. Ethical Considerations

Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes

Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.

Conclusion

Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.

Trending Author