Quotes About Interpretation

When reading fiction, we cannot automatically assume that what we read is fact.

We cannot arrive at Shakespeare's whole dramatic way of looking at the world from his tragedies alone, as we can arrive at Milton's way of regarding things, or at Wordsworth's or at Shelley's, by examining almost any one of their important works.

We cannot leave history entirely to nonclinical observers and to professional historians.

Words are things, but things which mean. We cannot do away with meaning without doing away with signs, that is, with language itself. Moreover, we would have to do away with the universe. All the things man touches are impregnated with meaning.

We are all human, and we are all able to listen to music that we cannot understand. I used to listen to English music like Notorious B.I.G., and I didn't know what he's talking about in all of his tracks, but I'm a fan. It's rhythm and a groove that makes me dance, so I'm convinced that my music can work in the U.S.

I suppose the cult of the strong woman character on TV has probably been misinterpreted in so many different ways, meaning that a woman can't be emotionally complicated or want things or can't be weak in moments.

A search for truth seems to me to be full of pitfalls. We all have different understandings of what truth is, and we'll each believe - or we are in danger of each believing - that our truth is the one and only absolute truth, which is why I say it's full of pitfalls.

I think there's art, and then there's illustration. Art comes from a deeper place.

My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water.

The composers could no longer direct all performances in person, and so the responsibility of interpreting their works in the spirit in which they had been conceived was placed upon conductors.

Ironically, the very fact that democracy has such a lengthy history has actually contributed to confusion and disagreement, for 'democracy' has meant different things to different people at different times and places.

In many ways, it is very real, because I sat there for 9 days, and it was constantly happening, and that was the 9 days of making the film. But you can't say that it's 100% true, because there are places where I've been intrusive and interfered.

I've watched my mom take a plain piece of paper and create something beautiful out of it, and I think that kind of manifested for me in taking a character from the page and bringing that to life.

The Constitution isn't written in Chinese, Swahili or Sanskrit. It's in plain English.

'Battle For The Planet Of The Apes', was just a film for kids and didn't have any deep meaning.

To get the film in your head on the screen, first you have to take it out of your head and explain it to everyone who is working with you. This will take work and planning.

Matisse draws what I call the essence of the plants. He leaves a shape open. He'll do a leaf and not close it. Everybody used to say, oh, I got it all from Matisse, and I said, 'Not really.'

I mean, y'know, platinum is different in every country, which can be confusing.

I think mine is the fullest and most plausible account of what went on in Marie Antoinette's life.

Art is an expression of who you are. Parts that I play are my sculptures.

I played a lot of Bach's partitas and sonatas; I like the way that Bach was abstracting already from these dance forms.

Before Liszt, a conductor was someone who just facilitated the performance, who would keep people together or beat the time, indicate the entries. After Liszt, that was no longer the case; a conductor was someone who shaped the music in an intense musical way, who played the orchestra as an instrument.

For us chess players the language of artist is something natural.

It's my goal to help actors achieve their best work, and I think I speak the same language as actors, so I understand how they do it, and I just love being able to create the playground in which they build their beautiful sandcastle.