Quotes About Expression

Looking back upon my work today, I think the best I have done grew out of things deeply felt, the worst from a pride in mere talent.

An artist is above all a human being, profoundly human to the core. If the artist can't feel everything that humanity feels, if the artist isn't capable of loving until he forgets himself and sacrifices himself if necessary, if he won't put down his magic brush and head the fight against the oppressor, then he isn't a great artist.

In college I read John Stuart Mill's On Liberty, which contains this thrilling declaration: "If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind."23 We seem to have gone, in one generation, from the bracing atmosphere of Mill's On Liberty to the dark, dank atmosphere of Orwell's 1984.

Seven months after the notorious Nazi book burning in 1933, Columbia University invited the German ambassador to speak on campus where

Not all writing is political or revolutionary, but the very act of giving yourself permission to write, to speak, to share the truth no matter whether the truth you understand is the truth others want to acknowledge, is brave, powerful, and important.

Words will never fully capture what is alive in our hearts. It would be a shame, though, if we denied our bears their dancing.

Dinty W. Moore

Fashions are not fashions at all but refashioning; language is not communication but reinvention. They are never in place but on display.

It is not the job of writers to lift our spirits. Books simply do what they do. They sometimes confirm the capricious drama of a childhood living room. When you think that you are in the grace of a dance you come upon something hard. ?—A Map to the Door of No Return - Dionne Brand

Dali's Reclining Woman Wearing a Chemise looks like a dead slaughtered doll, and I can see preying eagles, broken arrows, and jazz musicians in Jackson Pollock, and because I believe that Man Ray and Duchamp were lovers.

Only half a page left now. Shall I fill it with 'I love you, I love you'-- like father's page of cats on the mat? No. Even a broken heart doesn't warrant a waste of good paper.

I think it [religion] is an art, the greatest one; an extension of the communion all the other arts attempt.

With stories even a page can take me hours, but the truth seems to flow out as fast as I can get it down.

Certain unique books seem to be without forerunners or successors as far as their authors are concerned. Even though they may profoundly influence the work of other writers, for their creator they're complete, not leading anywhere.

Art could state very little - it's whole business is to evoke responses.

I am surprised to see how much I have written; with stories even a page can take me hours, but the truth seems to flow out as fast as I can get it down.

It was so nice that Simon was here for it - tell him I enjoyed every minute - ' it was glorious writing that - almost like telling him I was glad he'd kissed me. But after I'd posted the letter I was worried in case he guessed what I'd meant.

I love you, I love you, I love you. ~Cassandra

The vague expression was gone from his eyes - I had a feeling it was gone forever.

I wish I could find words--serious, beautiful words--to describe it in the afternoon sunlight; the more I strive for them, the more they utterly elude me.

He can be so appreciative of all forms of art, but so matter-of-fact and unemotional about it.

The one Bach piece I learnt made me feel I was being repeatedly hit on the head with a teaspoon

then we danced the tune through again, without saying one word - indeed, we never spoke all the time we were dancing. I can't remember that I even thought. I seemed to move with a pleasure that was mindless.

Ik schrijf dit terwijl ik in de gootsteen zit