Quotes About Interpretation

There was never a century nor a country that was short of experts who knew the Deity's mind and were willing to reveal it.

A good legible label is usually worth, for information, a ton of significant attitude and expression in a historical picture.

He saw nearly all things as through a glass eye, darkly.

Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."

The Christian's Bible is a drug store. Its contents remain the same, but the medical practice changes.

When a person has a poor ear for music he will flat and sharp right along without knowing it. He keeps near the tune, but it is not the tune. When a person has a poor ear for words, the result is a literary flatting and sharping; you perceive what he is intending to say, but you also perceive that he doesn't say it. This is Cooper.

The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.

Whenever the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you are going to see of him till he emerges on the other side of his Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.

The job of the poet is to render the world-to see it and report it without loss, without perversion. No poet ever talks about feelings. Only sentimental people do.

My friend has a baby. I'm recording all the noises he makes so later I can ask him what he meant.

Americans have different ways of saying things. They say 'elevator', we say 'lift'... they say 'President', we say 'stupid psychopathic git.

When the eyes say one thing, and the tongue another, a practiced man relies on the language of the first.

I try to find a way to make it comfortable or interesting or funny to me.

With rap, it's a funny thing. You can say things, and people can take 'em the way they wanna take 'em.

Write it down in your own handwriting.

You ever talk about a movie with someone that read the book? They're always so condescending. 'Ah, the book was much better than the movie.' Oh really? What I enjoyed about the movie: no reading.

I like reading Ball Tongue lyrics and all that stuff. And they published a book, and I wouldn't give my lyrics, and it's all wrong in the book, and I giggle. It's funny.

If a playwright is funny, the English look for a serious message, and if he's serious, they look for a joke.

I can only think of a handful of artists that can make a funny painting or a funny sculpture without it feeling coined in someway.

According to the latest official figures, 43% of all statistics are totally worthless.

The worst thing ever that you have to explain your joke because I was very disappointed trying to explain why the joke is funny for the interrogator.

Let's bring it up to date with some snappy nineteenth century dialogue.

"I've done your dog. It's got nine eyes down the side, I made his head all square, 15 legs. What do you think of that?" "Fido looks a bit weird."

The notes are right, but if I listened they would be wrong.