Quotes About Interpretation

I refused to explain, or even acknowledge, the "problem" as anything other than an artistic one.

She heard it as though it were what language was made for

Being simply illustrations, of how each of us reads, becomes engaged in and watches what is being read all at the same time.

I need to use everything—sound, image, performance—to get at the full meaning of the story

Now no one can fault the conqueror for writing history the way he sees it, and certainly not for digesting human events and discovering their patterns according to his point of view. But we can fault him for not owning up to what his point of view is.

You rely on a sentence to say more than the denotation and the connotation; you revel in the smoke that the words send up.

He read greedily but understood selectively, choosing the bits and pieces of other men's ideas that supported whatever predilection he had

When I got outside, I felt pains in my crotch, I had held my legs together so tight trying to make that woman understand. But I reckon now she couldn't understand. She married a man with a slash in his face instead of a mouth. So how could she understand?

Speaking-eyes, he thought, accompanied by the music of her voice.

When I teach creative writing, I always speak about how you have to learn how to read your work." —Toni Morrison

If I had to answer the question, What is the most important ability for the actor? . . . the answer would emphatically be listening. Lest there be some misunderstanding, let me define what I mean by listening. I am talking about listening with all the senses.

We need to make sure we are not analyzing the events in our lives from a secular, human, worldly point of view rather than from a divine, spiritual, godly point of view.

You see, dear—I think there are two types of people in the world. Those who divide the world up into two kinds of people... and those who don't.

They say, "Listen to your body," but I have found that pain doesn't speak in complete sentences; its grasp of grammar is weak. Its pronunciation is unclear.

History is not written as it was experienced, nor should it be. The inhabitants of the past know better than we do what it was like to live there, but they were not well placed, most of them, to understand what was happening to them and why.

A tak pokaždé, když nÄ›jaký trouba prohlásí, že Saddám Husajn je druhý Hitler, musíme se do sporu vložit a tyhle zjednoduÅ¡ující pitomosti zkomplikovat. RealitÄ› odpovídající zmatek je mnohem lepÅ¡í než elegantní nepravdy.

It's not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean.

Truly to appreciate what fossils are requires a leap of imagination he was not capable of making.

It seemed to me that the baker had an honest response to the painting. Van Ruijven tried too hard when he looked at paintings, with his honeyed words and studied expressions. He was too aware of having an audience to perform for, whereas the baker merely said what he thought.

O s?-mi fac? pl?cere s?-mi imaginez o pictur? f?cut? de un maestru,chiar dac? mintea mea creeaz? doar o imita?ie palid?.

Everything engravers do gets printed opposite. The engraver has to be able to see it both ways.

It was a funny thing: once you tell your story to others it becomes more like fiction and less like truth. A layer of performance is added to it, removing you further from the real thing.

It is not for you to say whether or not your work has life: that is between your work -the child of your creation now living a life of its own- and those who encounter it.

You are not making art, but art is being revealed through you.