Quotes About Subjectivity

It is an abstract change without object. Am I the one who has changed? (...) I must finally realize that I am subject to these sudden transformations. The thing is that I rarely think; a crowd of small metamorphoses accumulate in me without my noticing it, and then, one fine day, a veritable revolution takes place. This is what has given my life such a jerky, incoherent aspect.

Dans mes mains, par exemple, il y a quelque chose de neuf, une certaine façon de prendre ma pipe ou ma fourchette. Ou bien c'est la fourchette qui a, maintenant, une certaine façon de se faire prendre, je ne sais pas.

It is the reflection of my face. Often in these lost days I study it. I can understand nothing of this face. The faces of others have some sense, some direction. Not mine. I cannot even decide whether it is handsome or ugly. I think it is ugly because I have been told so. But it doesn't strike me. At heart, I am even shocked that anyone can attribute qualities of this kind to it, as if you called a clod of earth or a block of stone beautiful or ugly.

All these objects... how can I explain? They inconvenienced me; I would have liked the to exist less strongly, more dryly, in a more abstract way, with more reserve.

U mojim rukama, na primer, ima ne?eg novog, izvestan na?in na koji uzimam lulu ili viljušku. Ili pak sad viljuška ima izvestan na?in na koji se da uzeti, ne znam.

The simplest, most indefinable quality had too much content, in relation to itself, in its heart.

The effect of any form of materialism is to treat all men—including oneself—as objects, which is to say as a set of predetermined reactions indistinguishable from the properties and phenomena that constitute, say, a table, a chair, or a stone. Our aim is exactly to establish the human kingdom as a set of values distinct from the material world.

I exist. It's sweet, so sweet, so slow. And light: you'd think it floated all by itself. It stirs. It brushes by me, melts and vanishes. Gently, gently. There is bubbling water in my mouth. I swallow. It slides down my throat, it caresses me-and now it comes up again into my mouth. For ever I shall have a little pool of whitish water in my mouth-lying low-grazing my tongue. And this pool is still me. And the tongue. And the throat is me.

The true work of a critic is not to make his hearer believe him, but agree with him.

It's a mistake to ask a work of art to be all things to all people.

I think my work is very difficult to understand. Sometimes people do and sometimes they don't. I can't do much about that.

My work is immaterial. It's not painting, it's not sculpture, it's emotions. I'm giving you something to experience yourself.

Nothing touches a work of art so little as words of criticism: they always result in more or less fortunate misunderstandings.

I don't necessarily agree with everything I read about my films, but I wouldn't highlight a specific misconception: If people think this or that about myself or my work, they must have their reasons.

W]hat makes a work of art 'good' for you is not something that is already 'inside' it, but something that happens inside you.

A lot of people dont think of my work as being all that funny, but I think its hilarious!

Some people are just not going to like me and they're not going to like my work. But that doesn't mean I'm a bad person.

A genuine work of art usually displeases at first sight, as it suggests a deficiency in the spectator.

A painting means as much to you as a string of pearls to an ape.

I could wear makeup today, and one person would say it looks bland, another would say it looks fake, and another might tell me I look really natural. Everyone is convinced their opinion is the truth, and that's what I struggle against.

If you agree with a critic, you admire him or her. If you disagree, you despise them. We all feel a great need to be confirmed in our opinions.

I think, in politics, half the people are gonna like you, and half the people are not gonna like you, no matter what you do or what you say... It's like there are no right answers. If there were, everyone would choose the right answers. They're all opinions.

We all have our opinions; that's only human.

We all have opinions to what our parents really are, whether they agree or not. I'm sure they would feel the same the other way around.