Subject Matter Quotes - Page 3

• The funniest novel you've never read. . . . Afternoon Men is a revelation to sophisticated readers of every stripe, but especially to a certain kind of artist manqu on the brink of discovering that life is a more difficult business than he ever had reason to expect. . . . The subject matter is 'relatable,' as my students like to say. Better still, though, is what you can learn about the craft of writing from this marvelous book. . . . Indeed, if you're looking for a funny, nonportentous Hemingway, then the early Powell is your man.

  Blake Bailey

  Book, Writing, Men

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• Underlying all your choices, particularly subject matter and the way you represent it, should be your own personal scruples, the standards and rules that you voluntarily set for yourself, and which you may change or abandon whenever you choose - without explanation to anyone.

  Richard Schmid

  Choices, May, Matter

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• The essayist . . . can pull on any sort of shirt, be any sort of person, according to his mood or his subject matter - philosopher, scold, jester, raconteur, confidant, pundit, devil's advocate, enthusiast.

  E. B. White

  Philosophy, Devil, Matter

  E. B. White (2011). “In the Words of E.B. White: Quotations from America's Most Companionable of Writers”, p.215, Cornell University Press

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• Modern art to me is nothing more than the expression of contemporary aims of the age we’re living in. All cultures have had means and techniques of expressing their immediate aims – the Chinese, the Renaissance, all cultures. The thing that interests me is that today painters do not have to go to a subject matter outside of themselves. Most modern painters work from a different source, they work from within.

  Jackson Pollock

  Art, Mean, Expression

  Interview with William Wright, 1950.

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• We like to think of industrialization as being despicable. I don't really know what to make of it. There’s something terribly brittle about it. I suppose I would still prefer to sit under a tree with a picnic basket rather than under a gas pump, but signs and comic strips are interesting as subject matter. There are certain things that are usable, forceful, and vital about commercial art. We're using those things – but we're not really advocating stupidity, international teenagerism, and terrorism.

  Roy Lichtenstein

  Art, Thinking, Interesting

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• If there was anything that I learned with my own writing process, maybe there's too many choices what to write about. Just the amount of subject matter in the world these days; maybe that feels chaotic for me.

  Eddie Vedder

  Writing, Choices, World

  "Q&A: Penn, Vedder go where the 'Wild' things are". Interview with Jonathan Cohen, www.reuters.com. October 27, 2007.

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• I have had UFO experiences, and yet, at the same time, I can easily be convinced that none of it is true. It's hard to say whether or not you're a believer. I've been interested in that subject matter, like lots of people. Perhaps foolishly, I've allowed some of that stuff to creep into my music.

  Black Francis

  People, Matter, Stuff

  Interview with Keith Phipps, www.avclub.com. September 23, 1998.

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• I think if you're writing from the heart, very often, the subject matter will adjust as you age... but you try to write the best song you can possibly write. For us, we have the same basic elements that make up the America sound.

  Gerry Beckley

  Song, Writing, Heart

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• I think pop culture is the greatest subject matter out there - 'Other People's Lives,' as we wrote about on the last Duran Duran album. Most ideas for great songs come from real situations, something your friend said to you the night before, the girl that just left, or something traumatic in your life.

  Nick Rhodes

  Girl, Song, Real

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• Subject matter does not determine a successful painting. It is the manner in which one personally envisions and interprets the subject that is the magical equation.

  Robert Reynolds

  Successful, Doe, Matter

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• The purpose of subject matter is to veil technique. The great artist uses the cloak of resemblance to hide the means.

  John French Sloan

  Mean, Artist, Technique

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• I write about what I want to write about, and so the film comes out as a very personal expression even if its subject matter is totally prefabricated.

  Woody Allen

  Writing, Expression, Want

  Interview with Geoff Andrew, www.theguardian.com. September 27, 2001.

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• The prerequisite of contrapuntal art, more conspicuous in the work of Bach than in that of any other composer, is an ability to conceive a priori of melodic identities which when transposed, inverted, made retrograde, or transformed rhythmically will yet exhibit, in conjunction with the original subject matter, some entirely new but completely harmonious profile.

  Glenn Gould

  Art, Identity, Matter

  "Song: 'So You Want To Write A Fugue'". 1997.

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• Art is viable when it finds elements in the surrounding environment. Our ancestors drew their subject matter from the religious attitudes which weighed on their souls. We must now learn to draw inspiration from the tangible miracles around us.

  Umberto Boccioni

  Religious, Art, Attitude

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• A mirror does not develop because an historical pageant passes in front of it. It only develops when it gets a fresh coat of quicksilver in other words, when it acquires new sensitiveness; and the novel's success lies in its own sensitiveness, not in the success of its subject matter.

  E. M. Forster

  Lying, Mirrors, Historical

  E. M. Forster (2010). “Aspects of the Novel”, p.38, RosettaBooks

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• I shut the front door upon Christ and Einstein, and at the back door hold out a welcoming hand to little frogs and periwinkles. I believe nothing of my own that I have ever written. I cannot accept that the products of minds are subject-matter for beliefs.

  Charles Fort

  Believe, Doors, Hands

  Charles Fort (2014). “LO!”, p.15, Lulu.com

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• My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea, even switch me to different subject matter. So I start out with my mind as free from image as the silver film on which I am to record, and I hope as sensitive.

  Edward Weston

  Eye, Ideas, Mind

  Edward Weston, Peter C. Bunnell (1983). “Edward Weston on photography”, Gibbs Smith Publishers

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• The subject matter... is not that collection of solid, static objects extended in space but the life that is lived in the scene that it composes.

  Wallace Stevens

  Space, Matter, Scene

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• All the old bogeys of 'dignified subject-matter,' of 'balanced compositions,' of 'correct drawing' were laid to rest. The artist was responsible to no one but his own sensibilities for what he painted and how he painted it.

  Ernst Gombrich

  Responsibility, Artist, Drawing

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• The kids in our classroom are infinitely more significant than the subject matter we teach.

  Meladee McCarty

  Education, Kids, Wrestling

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• History, when rightly written, is but a record of providence; and he who would read history rightly, must read it with his eyes constantly fixed on the hand of God. This statement of a nineteenth-century historian sums up the responsibility of the Christian teacher of history, for he who would teach history or any subject matter rightly, must teach it with his eyes constantly fixed on the hand of God.

  D. A. Fisher

  Christian, Education, Teacher

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• I always think that if you deal with extremely emotional, even melodramatic, subject matter, as I constantly do, the best way to handle those situations is at a sufficient remove. It's like a doctor and a nurse and a casualty situation. You can't help the patient and you can't help yourself by emoting. And I don't think cinema is intended for therapy, so I object also to that huge, massive manipulation which is perpetrated on the public.

  Peter Greenaway

  Emotional, Thinking, Doctors

  "Flesh and Ink". Interview with Christopher Hawthorne, www.salon.com. June 06, 1997.

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• I use really crazy subject matter, like all of those pictures of me throwing up and cutting myself, it's to make people think rather than be so mediocre. Instead of just seeing another girl with implants, I want to have meaning to what I do.

  Jeffree Star

  Girl, Crazy, Cutting

  Source: substreammagazine.com

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• I always try to convince people that there has to be a lot of material about the subject matter, so they created a couple of pieces. One is about doomsday prophecies.

  Roland Emmerich

  Couple, People, Trying

  Source: www.bullz-eye.com

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• I'm doing a much smaller movie. It's set in Germany and it's a totally different subject matter. I'm trying to break it up.

  Roland Emmerich

  Trying, Germany, Different

  Source: www.bullz-eye.com

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