Quotes About Interpretation

Bear in mind," he once wrote a correspondent, "that all Histories from the Rock of Plymouth, and Jamestown to the present time, have been made by white men, and a man who tells his own story, is always right until the adversary's tale is told

Likewise a poet.

Of course a poem is a two-way street. No poem is any good if it doesn't suggest to the reader things from his own mind and recollection that he will read into it, and will add to what the poet has suggested. But I do think poetry readings are very important.

Clothes are never a frivolity: they always mean something.

There is no relationship between the gestures and what an orchestra will do.

Science always uses metaphor.

Contact means the exchange of specific knowledge, ideas, or at least of findings, definite facts. But what if no exchange is possible? If an elephant is not a giant microbe, the ocean is not a giant brain.

You see, dear, it is not true that woman was made from man's rib; she was really made from his funny bone.

This is God's world, so everything, even if it intends to efface God, bears witness to God – understood and interpreted through biblical eyeglasses.

The marquee scrolling across our minds trying to reinterpret life reads: "God-Against-Us." This becomes the dominant lens through which our flesh interprets life. We no longer give our loving Father the benefit of the doubt. Instead, we view every event as conclusive proof that God is against us.

it was impossible to confine a Government to the exercise of express powers; there must necessarily be admitted powers by implication, unless the Constitution descended to recount every minutia

Discernment, says Lonsdale, is about the "spiritual interpretation and evaluation of feelings, and particularly with the direction in which we are moved by them.

Beware of condemning any man's action. Consider your neighbor's intention, which is often honest and innocent, even though his act seems bad in outward appearance. —St. Ignatius Loyola

Two and two the mathematician continues to make four, in spite of the whine of the amateur for three, or the cry of the critic for five.

The masterpiece should appear as the flower to the painter—perfect in its bud as in its bloom—with no reason to explain its presence—no mission to fulfill—a joy to the artist, a delusion to the philanthropist—a puzzle to the botanist—an accident of sentiment and alliteration to the literary man.

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.

We look at a painting to know the painter; it's his company we are after, not his skill.

Poetry is what you can't translate. Art is what you can't define. Film is what you can't explain. But we're going to try, anyway.

the great thing about literature is that you can imagine; the great thing about film is that you can't.

It is our relationship to the symbol, the Word, that is important.

Hard at work on a new one, huh? What's this one called?" "A Feast of Souls." "A Feast of Souls," Ben said. "Classy." I slowed, unsure whether or not I had detected a hint of sarcasm in my neighbor's tone.

Art is not art, therefore, except as it leads to an engendering creativity in its beholders.

Myths, told for their own sake, are not stories that have meanings, but stories that give meanings.

This is as much as to say that nature does have a voice, and its voice is no different from our own. We can then presume to speak for the unspeakable.