Quotes About Interpretation

I realize that every picture isn't a work of art.

The words must conjure the character of a place for readers who may never see it. This may seem like magic, or incomparable talent, but the inspiration starts with acute observation.

If all of this seems paradoxical, get used to it. Language is paradox.

They are imbeciles who call my work abstract. That which they call abstract is the most realistic, because what is real is not the exterior but the idea, the essence of things.

It's dangerous to deal with words. In addition the author risks being flayed and stuffed after death by any little youthful and self-assured doctor of literature.

A reader doesn't really see the characters in a story; he feels them.

Toda sociedad es un sistema de interpretación del mundo (...) Su propia identidad no es otra cosa que ese "sistema de interpretación", ese mundo que ella crea. Y esa es la razón por la cual la sociedad percibe como un peligro mortal todo ataque contra ese sistema de interpretación; lo persigue como un ataque contra su identidad, contra sí misma

We said a lot of things; we said nothing.

Murder is such an elastic term, isn't it? ("Mind Over Murder")

Instead of questioning him directly any more, they had him spell out what he wanted to say letter by letter, Deadpan pointing them out on the chart and Kane jotting them down on a piece of paper — providing Eddie nodded yes — until he had complete words and sentences made up out of them.

There's an innocuous explanation for everything. Everything is a coin that has two sides to it, and one side is innocuous but the other can be ominous. ("New York Blues")

Each unto himself has his own world that he looks out upon, and though someone else were to stand on the very selfsame inch of ground your feet were placed upon, guided by chalk marks, he would not see the same things you did.

At last either Betsie or I would open the Bible. Because only the Hollanders could understand the Dutch text, we would translate aloud in German. And then we would hear the life-giving words passed back along the aisles in French, Polish, Russian, Czech, back into Dutch. They were little previews of heaven, these evenings beneath the lightbulb.

The Major Arcana cards are the big-picture cards. They're dramatic: the characters are larger than life.

Te concedo que mi manera de sentirla o de entenderla es diferente de la de Babs, y que la realidad de Babs difiere de la de Ossip y así sucesivamente. Pero es como las distintas opiniones sobre la Gioconda o sobre la ensalada de escarola. La realidad está ahí y nosotras en ella, entendiéndola a nuestra manera pero en ella.

A crucial premise of interpretation is that the Bible is designed to challenge us and our worldview.

The famous doctrine of the "clarity of Scripture" was applied by the Reformers to the central portions of its message, not to every detail of doctrine.

we all also possess preunderstandings, though we may not be conscious of them all. As we examine an issue or the text, it is helpful to consider how we are approaching the question and why. Sometimes it is dialogue with someone who thinks differently that helps us see why we see things the way we do.

One of the more flexible words in the English language, art is defined as a human creative skill, doing something as a result of knowledge and practice. It is the mind's eye rendered in visual form.

While we like to think that our theology shapes our understanding of the world, our understanding of the world often shapes our theology. The central metaphors of an era will often shift our notions of God.

This story is true. Of course, there are many lies therein and most of it did not happen, but it's all true. In that sense it is deeply religious, perhaps even biblical.

The Bible has been through at least half a dozen translations by the time you read it. Plus, when the word of God is infected by the hand of man, that is, written down, it is tainted.

The way we understand human life depends on what conception we have of the human story.

He didn't sound particularly drunk, but Bob's a professional, so you never can tell.