"I read The Odyssey all the time. I always get something out of it"

Larry Wachowski’s remark expresses a profound, ongoing engagement with Homer’s "The Odyssey", suggesting the text is far more than a relic of antiquity: it’s a living source of insight that continues to yield new interpretations and personal resonance upon each reading. For Wachowski, returning to "The Odyssey" is not a rote exercise but an evolving journey, mirroring the epic’s themes of exploration, longing, and self-discovery. The repeated act of reading implies that both the reader and the text are not static. As Wachowski changes through life’s experiences, gaining knowledge, enduring losses, finding new joys, so too does the significance he finds in Odysseus’s exploits.

Reading "The Odyssey" frequently, Wachowski finds that the narrative adapts to his changing perspectives. What may have seemed an adventure story in youth might later present itself as a reflection on homecoming or the persistence of identity. Odysseus’s struggles with temptation, endurance in suffering, and strategies for survival can mirror the reader’s own challenges. The epic’s mythic framework contains psychological, philosophical, and existential layers that become more accessible or relevant depending on the reader’s current stage of life and mindset.

Furthermore, the phrase “I always get something out of it” hints at the inexhaustible complexity of great literature. Watched over centuries, “The Odyssey” remains open and generative, offering lessons about perseverance, loyalty, the costs of ambition, and the allure of nostalgia. For Wachowski, who, as a filmmaker, is deeply engaged with narrative structure, identity, and the journey motif, the poem’s infinite refill of meaning matches the creative process itself: a continual cycle of revisiting and rediscovering foundational stories to inspire new visions. Each reading becomes an active conversation between the ancient world and the present, affirming literature’s power to shape and reshape our understanding of both the self and the world.