Quotes About Interpretation

I read in a book once that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but I've never been able to believe it. I don't believe a rose WOULD be as nice if it was called a thistle or a skunk cabbage.

When, after having read a work, loftier thoughts arise in your mind and noble and heartfelt feelings animate you, do not look for any other rule to judge it by; it is fine and written in a masterly manner.

Our actions are like blank rhymes, to which everyone applies what sense he pleases.

The Russian people have had literary spokesmen who for more than a generation have fascinated the European audience. The Japanese, on the other hand, have possessed no such national and universally recognized figures as Turgenieff or Tolstoy. They need an interpreter. It

JAPAN AN ATTEMPT AT INTERPRETATION BY LAFCADIO HEARN

the history of ethics and aesthetics,—all these and many other matters remain obscure.

As for the wine in the cups, it looked like water; but, as it tasted all right, what did its looks signify?

Truth is only a question of point of view.

As with many American conversations, the words he spoke had not conveyed what he had intended by them. He could never decide if it was his English, his actual use of language, or if it was because people didn't really listen and instead put into the words they heard the words they expected to hear.

He, too, wanted to tell the story of our adventure in his own way. Praise

The Requerimiento and Its Interpreters" by Lewis Hanke in Revista de Historia de América.

What we take anything to be profoundly affects how we go about describing it, and how we describe something profoundly affects how we go about explaining, accounting for, or understanding what is what we are, in a sense, defining, by our description.

When I go beyond a certain range it's outside of my direct horizon therefore I've got to rely on the writings and personal communications given to me by other people that I know.... I've got to try to piece together some tentative information picture of what the whole thing is like, but I'm aware that it becomes more and more speculative as it becomes more and more second, third, fourth hand. And this applies to absolutely everyone.

Wasn't that what religions did? Squint at one another and declare, 'My unprovable belief is better than your unprovable belief. Suck it.

Is it good or bad?" she asked Issa. The wrong question, she knew. She just couldn't help herself. "It's both, sweet girl," said Issa. "like everything.

It's not stalking if you don't follow them home, right?

It was unreal how two souls could look out through the same set of eyes in such drastically different fashion, seeming to reshape them entirely.

Madrigal sniffed herself. "I'm almost sure I don't smell." "Maybe not, but between shining cleanliness and not smelling, there is a vast gray area.

but wasn't that what religions did? Squint at one another and declare, "My unprovable belief is better than your unprovable belief. Suck it.

Karoo significa esperanza

an apostrophe humbled to a comma.

And when he reread the stories, still it was research.

Truth has many different drawers and shelves.

I think that in general -- well, at least it's true for me -- you tend to put something of yourself into the story as a whole. Not necessarily in any character, you understand. But you've got your own way of looking at the world, and that naturally will affect how you craft a story.