The strange power of art is sometimes it can show that what people have in common is more urgent than what differentiates them. It seems to me it's something that theatre can do, but it's rare; it's very rare.
John BergerRead
It can happen that a book, unlike its authors, grows younger as the years pass.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Books can gain relevance and freshness over time, even if their authors age.
This quote by John Berger suggests that while authors may age, the ideas and messages contained in their books can become increasingly significant or resonate more deeply with readers as time progresses. It highlights the notion that literature can transcend its original context, adapting and finding new meanings with each passing generation.
Themes
BooksLiteratureYouthTimelessnessRelevance
In practice
Example use cases
During a book club discussion, one might quote this to emphasize how classics still touch modern readers.
More from John Berger
All quotes βUnlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does.
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We never look at just one thing; we are always looking at the relation between things and ourselves.
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The camera relieves us of the burden of memory. It surveys us like God, and it surveys for us. Yet no other god has been so cynical, for the camera records in order to forget.
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Propaganda requires a permanent network of communication so that it can systematically stifle reflection with emotive or utopian slogans. Its pace is usually fast.
John BergerRead
Being a unique superpower undermines the military intelligence of strategy. To think strategically, one has to imagine oneself in the enemy's place. If one cannot do this, it is impossible to foresee, to take by surprise, to outflank. Misinterpreting an enemy can lead to defeat. This is how empires fall.
John BergerRead
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The public needs art, and it is the responsibility of a βself-proclaimed artistβ to realize the public needs art, and not to make bourgeois art for the few and ignore the masses. β¦ I am interested in making art to be experienced and explored by as many individuals as possible with as many different individual ideas about the given piece with no final meaning attached. The viewer creates the reality, the meaning, the conception of the piece. I am merely a middleman trying to bring ideas together.
Keith HaringRead