All great art is revolutionary because it touches upon the reality of man and questions the reality of the various transitory forms of human society.
Interpretation
Great art challenges societal norms and reflects deeper truths about humanity.
In this quote, Eric Hoffer emphasizes that the essence of great art lies in its ability to provoke thought and reflection on the human condition. Art is not merely a reflection of society; it possesses the power to question and criticize the fleeting constructs of human civilization, thereby encouraging a deeper understanding of ourselves and our world.
In practice
In an art critique discussing the transformative power of modernist works.
Language was invented to ask questions. Answers may be given by grunts and gestures, but questions must be spoken. Humanness came of age when man asked the first question. Social stagnation results not from a lack of answers but from the absence of the impulse to ask questions.
Faith in humanity, in posterity, in the destiny of one's religion, nation, race, party or family-what is it but the visualization of that eternal something to which we attach the self that is about to be annihilated?
You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.
Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.
Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about.
Perhaps a modern society can remain stable only by eliminating adolescence, by giving its young, from the age of ten, the skills, responsibilities, and rewards of grownups, and opportunities for action in all spheres of life. Adolescence should be a time of useful action, while book learning and scholarship should be a preoccupation of adults.
Photography is a kind of virtual reality, and it helps if you can create the illusion of being in an interesting world.
Film’s thought of as a director’s medium because the director creates the end product that appears on the screen. It’s that stupid auteur theory again, that the director is the author of the film. But what does the director shoot-the telephone book? Writers became much more important when sound came in, but they’ve had to put up a valiant fight to get the credit they deserve.
I think of myself as a stylist, and stylists can become notoriously obsessed with the placing of a comma, the weight of a semicolon.
Sing in me, Muse, and through me tell the story
Space has a way of looking. It seems like it has a presence of vision. When you come into it, it is there, it’s been waiting for you.
But I'd be lying if I didn't say that every time you go to make a film, you're desperate to either do it better than you did it last time or to not repeat yourself.
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