Quotes About Expression

Unless I am allowed to tell the story of my life in my own way, I cannot tell it at all.

When I was a little boy, they called me a liar, but now that I am grown up, they call me a writer. —Isaac Bashevis Singer

Elizabeth was not playing for the sake of exhibiting her virtuosity: she played for joy.

As to "Aesthetic Considerations," Ansel counseled, "A photograph that is merely a superficial record of the subject fails as an aesthetic expression of that subject. The expression must be an emotional amplification, and this emotional amplification relates to point of view, organization, revelation of substance through textures, tonal relations, and the perfection of the technical expression of all these elements."54

Group f.64 believed that photographic beauty was defined by beautiful prints produced by purely photographic means. The subjects need not be beautiful. What might appear ugly or commonplace could have value through the respectful understanding and expression of the photographer.

Breton, heavily influenced by Sigmund Freud, believed that art should be freed from the brake placed on creativity by the conscious mind.

She was free. Trembling, she found her voice. 'You are hateful,' she whispered. 'Am I? Good. I enjoy being hateful occasionally. Good for the manly image and all that.

We travellers are in very hard circumstances. If we say nothing but what has been said before us, we are dull and have observed nothing. If we tell anything new, we are laughed at as fabulous and romantic.

Prudent people are very happy 'tis an exceeding fine thing, that's certain, but I was born without it, and shall retain to my day of Death the Humour of saying what I think.

There are women in my closet, hanging on the hangers. a different woman for each suit, each dress, each pair of shoes. I hoard clothes. My makeup spills from the bathroom drawers, and there are different women for different lipsticks.

I began to feel like I was wearing a sign on my forehead that said FUCKED UP in big neon letters.

For me, the first sign of oncoming madness is that I'm unable to write.

Crazy isn´t always what they say it is. It´s not always the old woman wearing sneakers and a skirt and a scarf, wandering around with a shopping cart, hollering at no one, nothing, tumbling through years in her head. No. Sometimes it is a girl wearing boots and jeans and a sweater, arms crossed in front of her, shivering, wandering through the streets at night, all night, murmuring to no one, nothing, tumbling through the strange unreal dimensions in her head.

After a lifetime of silence, it is difficult then to speak.

He leaned down and whispered to me: No matter how thin you get, no matter how short you cut your hair, it's still going to be you underneath. And he let go of my arm and walked back down the hall.

Art is a process, not a product.

She knew better: when artistry seems most elusive is when you must focus, dig deep, and force yourself to think about how to give form to an idea that seems too vague to express.

Biologically and intellectually, reading allows the species to go "beyond the information given" to create endless thoughts most beautiful and wonderful.

I worry that we are even closer to the stripping away of complex thoughts when they do not fit the memory-enfeebling restriction on the number of characters used to convey them.

When we reflect that "sentence"10 means, literally, "a way of thinking" . . . we realize that . . . a sentence is both the opportunity and the limit of thought—what we have to think with, and what we have to think in. It is, moreover, a feelable thought. . . . It is a pattern of felt sense. —Wendell Berry

I had no idea how much music and singing really means to people, and in my own tiny way to be a part of that is very humbling and very sweet, and and I feel very honored. ... I have a great appreciation for this, in every ways and a new understanding, and I'm just as amazed as anyone else.

Unless we understand how it really works and find a a way to express it, giftedness can become a heavy burden.

He may not answer me at first, but that is no matter. I have someone to talk to, at last! My words will be like sunshine and air. My voice will rain down on him, and then we shall see what glorious orchid may blossom from this shy, unwanted Weed.

The Hawaiian shirts fairly scream to be put on,