Quotes About Interpretation

Intense study of the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar, in point of style.

Until you understand a writer's ignorance, presume yourself ignorant of his understanding.

The artist must imitate that which is within the thing, that which is active through form and figure, and discourses to us by symbols.

A poem of any length neither can be, or ought to be, all poetry.

I can't see words without reading them.

My father was a proctologist; my mother was an abstract artist. That's how I view the world.

I mean, you can talk about anything that's been talked about a million times, but if it's your experience and your point of view, you can always bring something new to it.

People reveal as much by their silence as they do by what they say.

When you see a quote that impresses you by how powerful it is, pause and say to yourself, "But hang on, is it total bullshit?" It's amazing how often you can instantly see it's bullshit. Sometimes you can flip back and forth, profound/bullshit, like that rabbit/duck picture.

The Christian evangelist falls into a similar trap if he opens up his Bible and says, 'It must be true, it's written here,' – because, of course, the fact that certain assertions are printed in a book does not prove them to be true. He will have to demonstrate that the Bible has that kind of authority, and if he cannot do so, he will have no reason to be annoyed if other people cannot accept what he says.

A thing that is pleasant to a tramp is often believable to a caveman.

kukirim padamu beberapa patah kata yang sudah langka – jika suatu hari nanti mereka mencapaimu, rahasiakan, sia-sia aja memahamiku

Every writer is first a reader, and what we read matters.

The teller has no responsibility to make the listener believe in the truth. Each must take the words and make them their own. No one can do this for another.

Well I wouldn't be too anxious to ask her to dance, being your librarian she might read more into it than you intend.

Or perhaps all those things you missed upon first glance mean much more than you could ever guess.

Under the glitzy, glamorous surface of the simplest popcorn flick, there were often hidden depths of meaning.

Without archives many stories of real people would be lost, and along with those stories, vital clues that allow us to reflect and interpret our lives today.

Sometimes a person's first assumption was very telling. It revealed how they perceived the situation.

For a novelist, the gaps in a story are as intriguing as material that still exists.

I've found myself moved by letters and diaries in archives as well as trashy, summer blockbusters. It's possible to make a connection with any kind of writing - as long as the writing is good.

Social and cultural history is often comprised of whatever diaries and letters remain and that is down to chance and wide open to interpretation.

I'm a novelist by trade and my job is to write a story rather than reconstruct actual events.

As a historical novelist, there are few jobs more retrospective.