“Please do not understand me too quickly.”

Please do not understand me too quickly.

Came across this quote via an old interview with Richard Ayoade when he was asked what he would change in the world. “I suppose maybe, maybe a slight slowing down.” “Of the world?” “Yes, of quickness, to feel that comprehension has been reached.”

The quote is originally from André Gide’s Les Caves du Vatican. « Ne me comprenez pas si vite, je vous en prie. » Not sure I have the stamina for it right now but would like to read it eventually.

Apparently it’s also the epigraph to Norman Mailer’s The Deer Park… Why did I think so differently about the quote when I found that out? Quotes are like water, they take the shape of the vessel they are delivered in.

Anyways, the yearning to slow down the world resonated. I choose the vessel.