Why is it we want so badly to memorialize ourselves? Even while we're still alive. We wish to assert our existence, like dogs peeing on fire hydrants. We put on display our framed photographs, our parchment diplomas, our silver-plated cups; we monogram our linen, we carve our names on trees, we scrawl them on washroom walls. It's all the same impulse. What do we hope from it? Applause, envy, respect? Or simply attention, of any kind we can get? At the very least we want a witness. We can't stand the idea of our own voices falling silent finally, like a radio running down. Margaret Atwood
About This Quote

The idea of memorializing yourself and what you had done in your life is something that we all yearn for and strive to achieve. It is a way to say that we exist and we hope that we left some sort of mark on the world while we were alive.

Source: The Blind Assassin

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