Quotes About Symbolism

And as I said, 'I wish I could pass this through the television set,' it just dawned on me—that was very much like the Eucharist, how [food] could be broken and offered to nourish others. And yet there was no way I could put that food through the television set, so I said there are other ways of sharing.

can shoot an arrow into it and make it rain blood.

I'd always felt that one could read a woman's discontent in the amount of embroidery in her sitting room. It gave me a crowded and nervous feeling to sit among so much frantic stitchery.

just as the Magi, seen now as kings, paid homage to Jesus by following his star, so the kings of the earth should pay homage to the emperor by following his sign.

More, the name Bethlehem literally means "house of bread.

When the Evangelists mention a date and a place, they are telling us to pay attention, for time and space hold a surfeit of meaning.

Once we figure out the sign, whether of a pregnant woman, of a mother who has just given birth, of a newborn, even of baby clothes or a stable, our next step is to work out the symbolism, or what that sign "signifies.

one always goes "up" to Jerusalem; one could be on the moon and still go "up" to Jerusalem

mon grand-père m'a dit que si le patriotisme se mesure en portant un drapeau, alors les bâtiments gouvernementaux sont patriotiques qu'autre chose

Cada naranja es una taza de sangre

El panadero, su mujer y un mozo cumplían las órdenes de los dos comisarios civiles —cuya autoridad simbolizaba una cinta tricolor en el brazo izquierdo— que investigaban si el consumidor pertenecía a la Sección, y la cantidad de pan que podía corresponderle con arreglo a la familia que tuviera en su casa.

All I have left is a transparent body inside of which transparent doves hurl themselves on a transparent dagger held by a transparent hand.

We have said nothing about Chirico until we take into account his most personal views about the artichoke, the glove, the cookie, or the spool.

Respectfully I kiss her lovely teeth and she says, slowly, gravely, the second time a few notes higher than the first: 'Communion takes place in silence...Communion takes place in silence.' This, she explains, is because this kiss leaves her with the impression of something sacred, where her teeth 'substituted for the host.

Fish die belly upward, and rise to the surface. It's their way of falling.

Fish die belly upward, and rise to the surface. Its their way of falling.

If you ground up a Levy in a mortar, . . . amid the grains on the pestle would be their gentleness.

Leroi-Gourhan écrit que, dans l'art des cavernes, signe féminin et blessure sont interchangeables : pour signifier la même idée, l'artiste, le penseur, l'écrivain paléolithique pouvait indifféremment figurer une vulve, une vache transpercée, le sang qui dégoutte d'une flèche. La vulve, le dol, la bête sous le merlin, le sang, sont synonymes ("Corps du roi", 40).

Dragonflies signify new beginnings and new unions…sometimes marriage.

A book without words is like love without a kiss; it's empty.

how could I protect myself? I had the Viking's scabbard, but not the sword; I had the Buddhist's robe, but not the faith.

These day's I like to imagine that if a man were to enter through the slash on the book's cover, as if it were a door, he could walk right into the heart of the Inferno.

Postmodernism surely requires an even greater grasp of symbolism, as it's increasingly an art of gesture alone.

In literature, the ghost is almost always a metaphor for the weight of the past. I don't believe in them in the traditional sense.