Susan Sontag: Literature is Freedom

I came home to read these quotes from an essay by Susan Sontag, actually a speech she delivered in 2003 called "Literature is Freedom." I find these words so true, and so moving.

A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world. That means trying to understand, take in, connect with, what wickedness human beings are capable of; and not be corrupted - made cynical, superficial - by this understanding.

Literature can tell us what the world is like.

Literature can give us standards and pass on deep knowledge, incarnated in language, in narrative.

Literature can train, and exercise, our ability to weep for those who are not us or ours.