It is difficult to write a paradiso when all the superficial indications are that you ought to write an apocalypse.
Ezra PoundRead
The Image is more than an idea. It is a vortex or cluster of fused ideas and is endowed with energy.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that an image transcends mere ideas, embodying a powerful combination of thoughts and energy.
Ezra Pound highlights the depth of visual art, suggesting that an image is not just a singular concept but a dynamic amalgamation of multiple ideas that combine to create a resonant impact. This fusion of thoughts gives an image its inherent energy, making it a powerful medium for expression and communication.
Themes
ImageArtIdeasEnergyVisualExpression
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about the power of visual communication, one might use this quote to illustrate how imagery evokes complex ideas.
More from Ezra Pound
All quotes βThe ant's a centaur in his dragon world. Pull down thy vanity, it is not man Made courage, or made order, or made grace, Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down. Learn of the green world what can be thy place In scaled invention or true artistry, Pull down thy vanity, Paquin pull down! The green casque has outdone your elegance.
Ezra PoundRead
I desired my dust to be mingled with yours Forever and forever and forever.
Ezra PoundRead
Literature does not exist in a vacuum. Writers as such have a definite social function exactly proportional to their ability as writers. This is their main use.
Ezra PoundRead
In our time, the curse is monetary illiteracy, just as inability to read plain print was the curse of earlier centuries.
Ezra PoundRead
The modern artist must live by craft and violence. His gods are violent gods. Those artists, so called, whose work does not show this strife, are uninteresting.
Ezra PoundRead
Similar quotes
When things go wrong, this is what you should do. Make good art.
Neil GaimanRead
Films that are easy to sell happen to be the worst films. Look at the poster for 'Wrath of the Titans' and 'John Carter': they're exactly the same. You could switch titles.
Taika WaititiRead
The world has never before had as much drama as today. Radio, films, television and video inundate us with drama. But while these forms can engage or even enrage the audience, in none of them can the viewerβs response alter the artistic event itselfThat is why theatre is signing its own death warrant when it tries to play too safe. On the other hand, that is also the reason why, although its future often seems bleak, theatre will continue to live and to provoke.
Girish KarnadRead
Everyday life is like programming, I guess. If you love something you can put beauty into it.
Donald KnuthRead
He realised, more vividly than ever before, that art had two constant, two unending preoccupations: it is always meditating upon death and it is always thereby creating life.
Boris PasternakRead
I seem most instinctively to believe in the human value of creative writing, whether in the form of verse or fiction, as a mode of truth-telling, self-expression and homage to the twin miracles of creation and consciousness.
John UpdikeRead