We took away your art because we thought it would reveal your souls. Or to put it more finely, we did it to prove you had souls at all.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
I was a little concerned that a lot of people thought I wrote Merchant Ivory movies. I also thought if I was ever going to write something strange and difficult, that was the time.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Kazuo Ishiguro reflects on the perception of his work and embraces the challenge of creating unconventional narratives.
In this quote, Kazuo Ishiguro expresses his awareness of the public's associations with his writing, particularly with the more straightforward, romantic Merchant Ivory films. He recognizes this perception as an opportunity to challenge himself creatively by exploring more intricate and unconventional themes, suggesting that the period in which people have a certain expectation of him is the perfect time to experiment and take artistic risks.
Themes
WritingArtCreativityRiskPerception
In practice
Example use cases
During a literary festival, discussing the importance of challenging creative norms.
More from Kazuo Ishiguro
All quotes βYou need to remember that. If youβre to have decent lives, you have to know who you are and what lies ahead of you, every one of you.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
I keep thinking about this river somewhere, with the water moving really fast. And these two people in the water, trying to hold onto each other, holding on as hard as they can, but in the end it's just too much. The current's too strong. They've got to let go, drift apart. That's how it is with us. It's a shame, Kath, because we've loved each other all our lives. But in the end, we can't stay together forever.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
What I'm not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
If you were a boy and a girl and you were in love with each other, really, properly in love, and if you could show it, then the people who run Hailsham, they sorted it out for you. They sorted it out so you could have a few years together before you began your donations.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
We all live inside bodies that will deteriorate. But when you look at human beings, they're capable of very decent things: love, loyalty. When time is running out, they don't care about possessions or status. They want to put things right if they've done wrong.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
Similar quotes
I'm not interested in seeing a film just made by a woman - not unless she is looking for new images.
Agnes VardaRead
A poem is a serious joke, a truth that has learned jujitsu.
William StaffordRead
You can't perish because of your own feelings; you have to embrace those things as an actor because it's part of your palette.
Martin LandauRead
I often find in the film world, that it's very self-referring. If you talk to someone about films, they talk about them in terms of other films - rather than as something that happened to them in their life. And I'm really keen to get back to film as a reference to real things, not necessarily to other films.
Steven KnightRead
A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.
Salvador DaliRead
I've worked with the Los Angeles Zoo for 45 years, and we have this magnificent photographer, Tad Motoyama. He takes these wonderful, wonderful animal pictures. All through the years he's given me copies of these pictures. Well, I have all these gorgeous ones, so I said, 'Tad, I want to do a book with your picture on one side.'
Betty WhiteRead