Quotes About Expression

I feel that women's voice, once it is heard, will activate and make audible the other small voices as well.

A poet is a man who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times.

It is always difficult for poets to believe that one says their poems are bad not because one is a fiend, but because their poems are bad.

It's ugly, but is it art?

I find that there is no speech that is not soliloquy. And yet, always, I sense an audience.

Language was just that thing that happened when you opened your mouth at the table, squeezed a few noises out of your vocal chords, and induced Socrates thereby to pass the salt.

For a novelist, being 'too emotional' is often a good thing. The only thing you have to sell is your emotional experiences.

Passion and drive are not the same at all. Passion pulls you toward something you cannot resist. Drive pushes you toward something you feel compelled or obligated to do. If you know nothing about yourself, you can't tell the difference. Once you gain a modicum of self-knowledge, you can express your passion.....It's not about jumping through someone else's hoops. That's drive.

Passion pulls you. It's the sense of connection you feel when the work you do expresses who you are. Only passion will get you through the tough times.

Anybody out there who is a parent, if your kids want to paint their bedrooms,as a favor to me, let them do it. It'll be OK.

That meant when I wasn't happy about something, I spoke up, often directly and not always tactfully.

Uzevši u obzir svoj ograni?eni umjetni?ki dar, zaklju?io sam da ?e biti najbolje ako naslikam stvari u jednostavnim geometrijskim oblicima. Stoga sam naslikao jednostavnu raketu s krilcima i Snjegulji?ino zrcalo s natpisom: »Sje?aš li se kad sam ti rekao da si najljepša? Lagao sam!«

Anybody out there who is a parent, if your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let them do it. It'll be OK. Don't worry about resale value on the house.

I was trying to put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on the beach for my children. If I were a painter, I would have painted for them. If I were a musician, I would have composed music. But I am a lecturer. So I lectured.

The same people who are murdered slowly in the mechanized slaughterhouses of work are also arguing, singing, drinking, dancing, making love, holding the streets, picking up weapons and inventing a new poetry.

I refuse to be called by any name, and suddenly, beneath the unnameable, I discover the wealth of lived experience, inexpressible poetry, the preconditions of supersession.

Pour le pouvoir, l'ennemi numéro UN, c'est la créativité individuelle s'irradiant librement.

Thanks to the magic of the imagination, everything exists solely to be manipulated, caressed, broken apart, put back together or altered in any way I wish. Once the primacy of subjectivity is accepted the spell of things is broken. Started from other people, the search for the self is fruitless; we repeat the same futile gestures time after time. Started from oneself, on the other hand, actions are not repeated but rather revisited, corrected and fully realized.

We need to balance between two important values, freedom of expression, and social responsibility.

The slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts…. If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought. A bad usage can spread by tradition and imitation, even among people who should and do know better. —GEORGE ORWELL, "POLITICS AND THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE," 1946

Music breaks my heart constantly.

I don't want to be an artist, go on tour and make a video and wear sexy clothes. I would just love to make music.

You know, I grew up on romantic comedies, and it's hard to find a new way to tell that story.

Music is hugely important to me.