Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness a more humane society will not emerge.
Vaclav HavelRead
Drama assumes an order. If only so that it might have - by disrupting that order - a way of surprising.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Drama creates a structure to better deliver its surprises by unsettling that structure.
Vaclav Havel's quote highlights the essential nature of drama as a form of art that relies on a structured order to effectively capture the audience's attention. By establishing a certain expectation or order, drama can then cleverly subvert or disrupt that order, leading to unexpected twists that provoke thought and emotion, thereby enhancing the overall impact of the performance.
Themes
DramaOrderSurpriseArtCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the importance of structure in storytelling.
More from Vaclav Havel
All quotes βOwnership is not a vice, not something to be ashamed of, but rather a commitment, and an instrument by which the general good can be served.
Vaclav HavelRead
In my opinion, theater shouldn't give advice to citizens.
Vaclav HavelRead
Sometimes I wonder if suicides aren't in fact sad guardians of the meaning of life.
Vaclav HavelRead
The exercise of power is determined by thousands of interactions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, all the more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyone has a small part of himself in both.
Vaclav HavelRead
Human rights, human freedoms... and human dignity have their deepest roots somewhere outside the perceptible world... while the state is a human creation, human beings are the creation of God.
Vaclav HavelRead
Similar quotes
It's a bit naff, but there is something exciting about pulling a bit of pottery out of the ground that's 2,000 years old.
Mary BeardRead
When we are writing, or painting, or composing, we are, during the time of creativity, freed from normal restrictions, and are opened to a wider world, where colors are brighter, sounds clearer, and people more wondrously complex than we normally realize.
Madeleine L'EngleRead
Give me a museum and I'll fill it.
Pablo PicassoRead
The musician is perhaps the most modest of animals, but he is also the proudest. It is he who invented the sublime art of ruining poetry.
Erik SatieRead
We usually evaluate creative process in terms of how much feeling or thinking was behind the work or how well the work was done. Isn't there any other way of appreciating the process? What if the standard of excellence was how fully present the artist was during the process?
Kazuaki TanahashiRead
When the bright angel dominates, out comes a great work of art, a Michelangelo David or a Beethoven symphony.
Madeleine L'EngleRead