Quotes About Meaning

What does this beauty or than music mean to you? You cannot see the waves rolling up the beach or hear their roar. What do they mean to you?' In the most evident sense they mean everything. I cannot fathom or define their meaning any more than I can fathom or define love or religion or goodness.

What is true happiness? It's not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

The best and most beautiful in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.

At first I was rather unwilling to study Latin grammar. It seemed absurd to waste time analyzing every word I came across — noun, genitive, singular, feminine — when its meaning was quite plain. I thought I might just as well describe my pet in order to know it — order, vertebrate; division, quadruped; class, mammalia; genus, felinus; species, cat; individual, Tabby. But as I got deeper into the subject, I became more interested, and the beauty of the language delighted me.

I was rather unwilling to study Latin grammar. It seemed absurd to waste time analyzing, every word I came across—noun, genitive, singular, feminine—when its meaning was quite plain. I thought I might just as well describe my pet in order to know it—order, vertebrate; division, quadruped; class, mammalia; genus, felinus; species, cat; individual, Tabby.

Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.

Human writing reflects that of the universe; it is its translation, but also its metaphor: it says something totally different, and it says the same thing.

I think that if a writer doesn't use her voice, be it in her writing or online or in real life, then what is the point of having one?

Writing and reading fiction is, I think, a human effort to make sense of the world.

Writing reminds you of how much there is in your life that stands outside your explanations. In that way, it's almost a journey into faith and doubt at once.

Writing about 'What is art?' is not something I ever thought I'd be doing.

If something in your writing gives support to people in their lives, that's more than just entertainment-which is what we writers all struggle to do, to touch people.

When it's your words, and then you watch it connect with an audience as the artist, I kinda reflect back on the writing process and why those words were important to me. And to watch people sing it back, I mean, that kinda means everything because that's the whole point for me - performance and songwriting - is to connect with people.

Weirdly, the past starts to be about something else. It becomes about style in a way that it wasn't about, and I don't mean writing style, but cultural style.

My favorite Twombly is 'Apollo and the Artist,' with the big 'Apollo' written across it.

The earliest stories in Genesis were not written to tell primeval history. They were written to tell readers about themselves and about God.

When I heard 'Jesus, Take the Wheel,' I was like, OK. Some people look at it as a song written for an American Idol, Carrie Underwood, who is wonderful. But when you're a songwriter listening to a song, you hear something else. I heard that song, and wow.

Most people who ask me what's my favorite song, expect that it's 'Midnight Train' or 'Neither One of Us.' But actually, it's always kinda been 'The Need to Be' because of what it says. I love the way that song was written, I love the melody, I love everything about it.

I don't work with anybody on the music, of course. But my God, some of the lyrics that other people have written were so shallow: 'Hey baby this, hey baby that.' I need substance to the words, you know? Give me depth!

I have written about the women around me. My ancestors, my relatives, lovers. It was a way of trying to make it all make sense.

Something's that written out is okay, but it's not always a clear indication of what a person means.

The written word is everything.

We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.

He said true things, but called them by wrong names.