Quotes About Interpretation

Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.

You know that look that women get when they want to have sex? Me neither.

Einstein wrote, "Whether you can observe a thing or not depends on the theory which you use. It is the theory which decides what can be observed.

it is not enough to know merely what the Bible says. In fact, that can be dangerous. What is essential is to understand what the Bible means.

So we put ourselves in a dangerous place when we formulate concrete opinions about who God is without filtering our thoughts through Jesus.

To unlock your Bible so that you can understand its meaning and application to your own life, it is necessary to avoid reading the whole Bible through old covenant eyes that see rules to be obeyed. That's not what the Bible is about, and you will miss the point of Scripture altogether if you read it like an Old Covenant Jew who is still under the Law.

the entire Bible is written for you, but not all of it is written to you.

It's important to remember that the verses in the Old Testament were addressed to the people of that covenant, and not to you.

Augustine, one of the Church Fathers, also commented on the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament when he said, "In the Old Testament the New Testament is concealed; in the New Testament the Old Testament is revealed.

While Jesus transcends culture, culture does not change God's word.

There is a need for wisdom in art. Shock, surprise, novelty, and innovation helped to grab attention but are not substantial in themselves.

The best kinds of stories are made up out of little bits of truth and stretched into a pleasing shape.

I've been hearing about how good and kind and merciful that old boy is upstairs, but I've read the Old Testament. You just take a look at all the folks that Jehovah decreed needed to burned or sacked and smited out of their homes. That old fellow is a psychopathic serial killer, you just check the facts.

One thing that has impressed me for years-and which was so poignantly displayed in Mel Gibson's gripping film-is the reality that one reason why the religious leaders in Christ's day rejected their Messiah was because they misunderstood the Old Testament prophecies predicting His arrival. Think about it. Because it happened once, couldn't it happen again?

Rapture teachers interpret this event as silent and secret, yet doesn't it seem rather loud and visible? There is a shout, a voice, a trumpet. Have you ever heard of a silent trumpet? The truth is, First Thessalonians 4:16 is one of the noisiest verses in the Bible!

imagine a line drawn through the main line of action—be it a moving car, a football field, or the eye line of a conversation.

Art is edited truth . . . Art is skill in the service of passion. —STEPHEN SONDHEIM

Unlike music ... dance has a strong capacity for representation and imitation, which suggests that dance may have further served as an early form of language. Indeed, dance is the quintessential gesture language.

We passed a street minstrel who was singing in one of the more obscure Eastern languages, and I dropped a few orbs into his instrument case. "Boss, was he singing what I thought he was singing?" "A young man tells his beloved of his love for her." " 'My little hairy testicle—' " "It's a cultural thing, Loiosh. You wouldn't understand.

We create our own omens, I think, and then mystify ourselves trying to understand their significance.

There's nothing to tell." I gave her a brief discussion of fertilizer. She seemed unimpressed with my agricultural expertise. "Believe what you like," she said. It was good to have permission, but I resisted telling her so.

I'm generalizing from one example, here, but everyone generalizes from one example. At least, I do.

The tools are real. The viewer is real, you, the artist, is real and a part of everything you paint. You connect yourself to the viewer by sharing something that is inside of you that connects with something inside of him. All you have as your guide is that you know what moves you. All you have to do it with is a brush, some chemical and canvas, and technique.

I've heard it said: 'By his home you shall know him'; and we all know that we must pay attention to anyone who reverses the subject and auxiliary verb in his sentence.