Quotes About Interpretation

The way we see the world is not actually the world in itself. What we see is our idea of it. The truth is, we have no notion of what the world is other than through the veils of our perception.

Hugh Laurie (playing Mr. Palmer) felt the line 'Don't palm all your abuses [of language upon me]' was possibly too rude. 'It's in the book,' I said. He didn't hit me.

Actions do not betray, but language is filled with the danger of betrayal at any instant. This quality is what makes language both infinitely beautiful and infinitely frightening.

Many a true word is spoken in jest.

The theatre is a gross art, built in sweeps and over-emphasis. Compromise is its second name.

Todo es forma y casi nada es contenido.

un vaticinio tiene más autoridad que un comentario.

La historia dice "así fue"; la novela propone "así pudo ser".

los lectores les fallan a los escritores cuando sólo buscan en éstos la confirmación de que el mundo es como lo ven ellos...

Y si escribir es, en el libro, hacerse legible para todos, e indescifrable para sí mismo?

I remember always thinking that life itself doesn't actually exist, because if no one tells it as a story or turns it into a narrative, life is merely something that happens, nothing more. To understand life, you have to tell it, even if only to yourself. This doesn't mean that a story can make life comprehensible, because there are always gaps in any narrative, whatever sutures or remedies you might try to apply. That is why a narrative only restores life in fragmentary form.

No se parece nada a aquel poeta inglés del que Chesterton decía que era oscuro porque tenía siempre tan claro lo que iba a decir que no veía razones para explicarlo.

Cuando leo algo que entiendo perfectamente, lo abandono desilusionado. No me gustan los relatos con historias comprensibles. Porque entender puede ser una condena. Y no entender, la puerta que se abre.

If I win, I'm a prodigy. If I lose, then I'm crazy. That's the way history is written.

Hey, look—your girlfriend is saying something." Artemis had a vast mental reserve of scathing comebacks at his disposal, but none of them covered girlfriend insults. He wasn't even sure if it was an insult. And if it was, who was being insulted? Him or the girl?

Everything has two handles,--one by which it may be borne another by which it cannot.

Man is troubled not by events, but by the meaning he gives them.

sense data are what they are, and they are infallible, being mechanically transmitted to us by atomic images from the outer world. They may be overlaid with misleading interpretations and lead to "false opinions," 39 but they are true if confirmed by close inspection or if they are not contradicted.

What has been said is often less important than what has not been said.

the Wehrmacht was always something different from the Nazis. We always believed that the Wehrmacht stood as a contrast to the Nazis.53.

In short, 'Be careful!' too often means: 'Make a mistake so I can tell you I told you to be careful,' and that is the final display. 'Be careful, ha ha!' is even more of a provocation. As a straight Adult instruction 'Be careful!' may have some value, but Parental overconcern or a Child Ha Ha gives it a different turn.

Freud knew the answers. If you don't understand something about sex, don't say it's awful or mysterious. Look it up in Freud.

A few people, however, can still see and hear in the old way. But most of the members of the human race have lost the capacity to he painters, poets or musicians, and are not left the option of seeing and hearing directly even if they can afford to; they must get it secondhand. The recovery of this ability is called here "awareness.