In the possibility of control over what seems essentially uncontrollable, in the coherence of the inchoate, and in its ability to create its own values.
AL ALVAREZDespair, in short, seeks its own environment as surely as water finds its own level.
More Al Alvarez Quotes
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When neither high purpose nor the categorical imperatives of religion will do, the only argument against suicide is life itself.
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No man kills himself unless there is something wrong with his life.
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Each sporadic burst of work, each minor success and disappointment, each moment of calm and relaxation.
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Perhaps this is one reason why climbing has become increasingly hard as society has become increasingly, disproportionately, coddling.
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It is easy to smile at an insult and pretend it’s funny when the person insulting you is hosing you with money.
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Despite the hundreds of attempts, police terror and the concentration camps have proved to be more or less impossible subjects for the artist.
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It puts domestic problems back into proportion and adds an element of seriousness to your drab, routine life.
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I absolutely don’t believe in anything. Full stop. Including luck.
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The better the artist, the more vulnerable he seems to be.
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Now, if, as I think, writing should be, it’s a kind of risky trade.
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He pays for his social ease with what used to be called his soul – his discriminations, his uniqueness, his psychic energy, his self.
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When you make a bet, you’re saying something.
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Divorce transforms habit into drama.
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The real resistance now is to an art which forces its audience to recognize and accept imaginatively.
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Since what happened in them was beyond the imagination, it was therefore also beyond art and all those human values on which art is traditionally based.
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