Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Artists interpret reality in unique ways rather than merely reflecting it as it is.
Oscar Wilde suggests that true artistry involves a subjective interpretation of reality, where an artist transforms their perception into a creative expression. If an artist were to see the world solely as it is, devoid of imagination or perception, their artistic vision and creativity would be diminished, leading them to lose their artistic identity.
Themes
ArtCreativityInterpretationImaginationVision
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech at an art gala discussing the nature of creativity.
More from Oscar Wilde
All quotes βLondon is too full of fogs and serious people. Whether the fogs produce the serious people, or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don't know.
Oscar WildeRead
When one has never heard a man's name in the course of one's life, it speaks volumes for him; he must be quite respectable.
Oscar WildeRead
Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
Oscar WildeRead
A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
Oscar WildeRead
His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
Oscar WildeRead
Similar quotes
Life is more important than art; that's what makes art important.
James A. BaldwinRead
The kind of fiction I'm trying to write is about telling the truth.
Paul AusterRead
Music is the one part of the entertainment business where you can't fool anybody into buying a record.
Nile RodgersRead
I am intrigued with the shapes people choose as their symbols to create a language. There is within all forms a basic structure, an indication of the entire object with a minimum of lines that becomes a symbol. This is common to all languages, all people, all times.
Keith HaringRead
I am never going to stop playing the villain. I would be foolish to do so because the audiences apparently enjoy watching me, and who am I to say no?
Christopher LeeRead
I have never been able to remember the number of my driver's license, and there have been times when I couldn't even remember my own telephone number, but when I hear a song, sometimes only once, I never forget the melody or the lyric.
Marlon BrandoRead