Quotes About Interpretation

Those who can think up feminism or structuralism; those who can't apply such insights to Moby Dick or The Cat in the Hat.

Emotions are the sums created by details, whether those details are true or not.

In the end, people believed what they wanted to believe. The truth had very little to do with it.

Richard unfolded his arms, holding them out to his sides. "What difference does that make? 'I,' 'we,' what does it matter?" She stared at him. "One be true, one be a lie. How much more difference could there be?" Richard folded his arms across his chest again, frowning. "Chase must have a very difficult time telling you the stories of his adventures." Adie's small smile came back. "True

The whole of life is just like watching a film. Only it's as though you always get in ten minutes after the big picture has started, and no-one will tell you the plot, so you have to work it out all yourself from the clues.

A European says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with me? An American says: I can't understand this, what's wrong with him? I make no suggestion that one side or other is right, but observation over many years leads me to believe it is true.

There's always a story. It's all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything's got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.

Juliet's version of cleanliness was next to godliness, which was to say it was erratic, past all understanding and was seldom seen.

The trouble was that he was talking in philosophy but they were listening in gibberish.

You know, you're rather amusingly wrong.

One day I'll work out what it is you are saying, my lad, and then you'll be in trouble.

In an instant he became aware that the tourist was about to try his own peculiar brand of linguistics, which meant that he would speak loudly and slowly in his own language.

I never said nothing... I know you never! I could hear you not saying anything! You've got the loudest silences I ever did hear from anyone who wasn't dead!

Sam Vimes could parallel process. Most husbands can. They learn to follow their own line of thought while at the same time listening to what their wives say. And the listening is important, because at any time they could be challenged and must be ready to quote the last sentence in full. A vital additional skill is being able to scan the dialogue for telltale phrases such as and they can deliver it tomorrow or so I've invited them for dinner? or they can do it in blue, really quite cheaply.

A metaphor is a kind o' lie to help people understand what's true.

To animals they were just the weather, just part of everything. But humans arose and gave them names, just as people filled the starry sky with heroes and monsters, because this turned them into stories. And humans loved stories, because once you'd turned things into stories, you could change the stories.

Omens are everywhere in this world you just have to find the one that fits.

Just because something is a metaphor doesn't mean it can't be real.

Anyway, lots of warrior tribes think that when they die, they go to a heavenly land somewhere, said the toad. You know, where they can drink and fight and feast forever? So maybe this is theirs. But this is a real place! So? That's what they believe. Besides, they're only small. Maybe the universe is a bit crowded and they have to put heavens anywhere there's room? I'm a toad, so you'll appreciate that I'm having to guess a lot here.

There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass! Who's been pinching my beer?

It was written in some holy book, apparently, so that made it okay, and probably compulsory.

It must be powerful language if you canna make oout what the heel it's goin' on aboot!

All witches who'd lived in her cottage were bookish types. They thought you could see life through books but you couldn't, the reason being that the words got in the way.

Omens were all very well, but sometimes it would help if people just wrote things down.