1997 Message to Garcia
William Faulkner's Nobel Prize acceptance speech - 1949
I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will
prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has
an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of
compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is
to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting
his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and
pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory
of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can
be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will
prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has
an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of
compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is
to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting
his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and
pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory
of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can
be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
