Quotes About Interpretation

Vladimir Nabokov, contemning readers who identified with characters in fiction, remarked that the best readers identify with the artist.

Distortion of view takes place when we hold so deeply to our viewpoint that not even known facts can sway our beliefs.

That's another thing that pisses me off about that Michelangelo statue of me in Florence. He's got me standing there uncircumcised! Who the fuck did he think I was?

Now, where were we? Read me back the last line.' 'Read me back the last line,' read back the corporal who could take shorthand. 'Not my last line, stupid!' the colonel shouted. 'Somebody else's.' 'Read me back the last line.' read back the corporal. 'That's my last line again!' shrieked the colonel, turning purple with anger. 'Oh, no, sir,' corrected the corporal. 'That's my last line. I read it to you just a moment ago. Don't you remember, sir? It was only a moment ago.

Superman?' Clevinger cried. 'Superman?' 'Supraman,' Yossarian corrected.

Keep in mind that when we talk of a great painting we are not really talking about anything great. We are talking of only a painting.

Stia totul despre literatura, in afara de modul in care se putea bucura de ea.

Any possibilities that I might be mistaken about her humor were dispelled by her first words.

It is well known, that when one side only of a story is heard, and often repeated, the human mind becomes impressed with it, insensibly.

If you detect a needlessly complex style when you read, look for characters and actions so that you can unravel for yourself the complexity the writer needlessly inflicted on you.

There are some who believe the poem can be a guide, a Virgil, can be a window into a way of being. Do I believe this? Does anyone believe this anymore?

For three years, there was a dispute between the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel, the former asserting, "The law (halakhah) is according to our view," and the latter asserting, "The law is according to our view." Then, a voice issued from heaven announcing, "Both these and these are the words of the living God, but the law is in agreement with the School of Hillel.

Anything can be good. Even Last Action Hero could've been good. There's an idea somewhere in almost any movie : if you can find something that you love, then you can do it. If you can't, it doesn't matter how skilful you are...

I study and read poems and try to put myself in them.

One man's insanity is another man's genius; someday the world will recognize the genius in my insanity.

Was it confusing because it was artistic, or artistic because it was confusing?

Our lives can only be interpreted in retrospect, yet must be lived from day to day, blindly. What folly, the human condition!

Because nothing between human beings is uncomplicated and there's no way to speak of human beings without simplifying and misrepresenting them.

It isn't the subjects we write about but the seriousness and subtlety of our expression that determines the worth of or effort.

Critics sometimes appear to be addressing themselves to works other than those I remember writing.

Once upon a time the fairy tales begin. But then they end and often you don't know really what has happened, what was meant to happen, you only know what you've been told, what the words suggest.

We see the shadows of things, not the things themselves . . . We are forced to imagine what the writer doesn't reveal.

that I—I have not 'heard' . . . What is it?

Because nothing between human beings isn't uncomplicated and there's no way to speak of human beings without simplifying and misrepresenting them.