QuoteProject
I wasn't exposed to art as I was growing up, and can't recall the first time I saw a work of art. However, I remember very clearly a vision I had of a little green reindeer when I was a child, and visions emanate from the same mythical area where painting resides. Whatever the reason, I immediately felt comfortable working with visual materials.
William S. Burroughs
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects the connection between imagination and creativity in art.

William S. Burroughs expresses how his early experiences, despite not being directly exposed to art, helped him develop a connection to visual creativity. He emphasizes that visions and imagination are integral to the artistic process, suggesting that personal experiences and inner visions can inspire artistic expression.

Themes

ArtCreativityImaginationVisionsExpression

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about the importance of creativity in childhood.

More from William S. Burroughs

God save the Queen and a fascist regime … a flabby toothless fascism, to be sure. Never go too far in any direction, is the basic law on which Limey-Land is built. The Queen stabilizes the whole sinking shithouse and keeps a small elite of wealth and privilege on top. The English have gone soft in the outhouse. England is like some stricken beast too stupid to know it is dead. Ingloriously foundering in its own waste products, the backlash and bad karma of empire
William S. BurroughsRead
Like most qualities, cuteness is delineated by what it isn't. Most people aren't cute at all, or if so they quickly outgrow their cuteness ... Elegance, grace, delicacy, beauty, and a lack of self-consciousness: a creature who knows he is cute soon isn't.
William S. BurroughsRead
There is nothing more provocative than minding your own business.
William S. BurroughsRead
Gentle reader, the Fountain of Youth is radioactive, and those who imbibe its poisonous heavy waters will suffer the hideous fate of decaying metal. Yet almost without exception, the wretched idiot inhabitants of our benighted planet would gulp down this radioactive excrement if it were offered.
William S. BurroughsRead
Language is a virus from outer space.
William S. BurroughsRead
One very important aspect of art is that it makes people aware of what they know and don’t know they know... Once the breakthrough is made, there is a permanent expansion of awareness. But there is always a reaction of rage, of outrage, at the first breakthrough... So the artist, then, expands awareness. And once the breakthrough is made, this becomes part of the general awareness.
William S. BurroughsRead

Similar quotes

Now, learning how to make a movie is something you can figure out in about an afternoon. The physics of it, the marks, the lights, etc. What's hard to do is to suspend your own feelings of self consciousness. The natural actors can do that; they can become part of a characterization and learn how to maintain it.
Tom HanksRead
I've made movies that I thought were good. I've made movies that I thought were okay, but then I was very good. And sometimes you're in a movie and you think, I wish more people saw that - because you're good. And it just works out that the movie gets lost. But that's show business.
Christopher WalkenRead
The music, while it lasted, brought a new world into being.
Wendell BerryRead
Acting is largely about putting on masks, and music is about removing them.
Hugh LaurieRead
To me, music is entertainment - what else can it be? In fact, it's the only language I know of that's universal.
Ray CharlesRead
To shoot a film is to organize an entire universe.
Ingmar BergmanRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by William S. Burroughs | QuoteProject