Stephen Greenblatt Quotes

But I never listen to music while I'm writing.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

Listen Music Never While Writing

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But if Shakespeare himself is maybe about meaning and truth, I don't know, then he is certainly about pleasure and interest, we start with pleasure and interest, but maybe eventually it gets to meaning and truth.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

About Certainly Eventually Gets He Himself Interest Know Maybe Meaning Pleasure Shakespeare Start Then Truth

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First of all, Shakespeare is about pleasure and interest. He was from the first moment he actually wrote something for the stage, and he remains so.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

About Actually First First Of All He Interest Moment Pleasure Remains Shakespeare Something Stage Wrote

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First of all, there was a volcano of words, an eruption of words that Shakespeare had never used before that had never been used in the English language before. It's astonishing. It pours out of him.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

Astonishing Been Before English English Language First First Of All Had Him Language Never Out Shakespeare Used Volcano Words

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I believe in broken, fractured, complicated narratives, but I believe in narratives as a vehicle for truth, not simply as a form of entertainment, though I love entertainment, but also a way of conveying what needs to be conveyed about the works that I care about.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

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I believe that it is a whole lifetime of work on Shakespeare's part that enabled him to do what he did. But the question is how you can explain this whole lifetime in such a way to make it accessible and available to us, to me.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

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I believe that nothing comes of nothing, even in Shakespeare. I wanted to know where he got the matter he was working with and what he did with that matter.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

Believe Did Even Got He I Believe I Believe That Know Matter Nothing Shakespeare Wanted Where Working

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I think the writing of literature should give pleasure. What else should it be about? It is not nuclear physics. It actually has to give pleasure or it is worth nothing.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

About Actually Else Give I Think Literature Nothing Nuclear Nuclear Physics Physics Pleasure Should Think Worth Writing

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I wanted to hold onto and exploit the power of narrative. This is not only a book about a great storyteller, but there have to be stories about the storyteller.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

About Book Exploit Great Hold Narrative Only Onto Power Stories Storyteller Wanted

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I'm not spitting in my own soup, I love having spent my life thinking about these things-but you don't have to know anything about his life, even though I've just written a biography!

~ Stephen Greenblatt

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I've been at this for 40 years. And, as an academic, I've been content with relatively small audiences, with the thought that the audience I long for will find its way eventually to what I have written, provided that what I have written is good enough.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

Academic Audience Audiences Been Content Enough Eventually Find Good Long Provided Relatively Small Thought Way Will Written Years

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It is not that Shakespeare's art is in technicolor and fancy, and that real life is black and white and tedious. The life that Shakespeare was living was the only life he had, and he had to use it to create what he was doing.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

Art Black Black And White Create Doing Fancy Had He Life Living Only Real Real Life Shakespeare Tedious Use White

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My father who in this case was an obsessive life-long storyteller, and by a very peculiar trick of my father's. My father would tell a very, very long story, and the punch line would be in Yiddish.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

Case Father Line Long Long Story Obsessive Peculiar Punch Punch Line Story Storyteller Tell Trick Very Who Would Would-Be

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No special writing rituals. And my desk is usually cluttered.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

Cluttered Desk Rituals Special Writing

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Now a Protestant confronting a Catholic ghost is exactly Shakespeare's way of grappling with what was not simply a general social problem but one lived out in his own life.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

Catholic Confronting Exactly General Ghost His Life Lived Now Out Own Problem Protestant Shakespeare Simply Social Way

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The Shakespeare that Shakespeare became is the name that's attached to these astonishing objects that he left behind.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

Astonishing Attached Became Behind He Left Name Objects Shakespeare

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Well it is certainly the case that the poems - which were in fact published during Shakespeare's lifetime - are weird if they began or originated in this form, as I think they did, because the poems get out of control.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

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What I wanted to do was to get that sense of being in touch with this lost world while holding onto what draws readers and audiences there in the first place.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

Audiences Being Draws First First Place Get Holding Lost Onto Place Readers Sense Touch Wanted While World

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What matters here are the works - finally without them his life would be uninteresting. What matters, that is, are the astonishing things that he left behind. If we can get the life in relation to the works, then it can take off.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

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What we know is that Shakespeare wrote perhaps the most remarkable body of passionate love poetry in the English language to a young man.

~ Stephen Greenblatt

Body English English Language Know Language Love Man Most Passionate Passionate Love Perhaps Poetry Remarkable Shakespeare Wrote Young Young Man

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