The task of a writer consists of being able to make something out of an idea.
Thomas MannRead
What pleases the public is lively and vivid delineation which makes no demands on the intellect; but passionate and absolutist youth can only be enthralled by a problem.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote discusses how art that captivates the public often lacks complexity, while passionate youth seek out intellectual challenges.
Thomas Mann suggests that popular art tends to engage the masses through vividness and liveliness, without requiring deep thought. In contrast, he points out that passionate youth are drawn to art and ideas that pose complex problems and intellectual challenges, reflecting their desire for depth and meaning in their experiences.
Themes
ArtPublicYouthIntellectComplexity
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the impact of modern art, this quote can illustrate the contrasting tastes of different audiences.
More from Thomas Mann
All quotes βStupid β well, there are so many kinds of stupidity, and cleverness is one of the worst.
Thomas MannRead
It is a strange fact that freedom and equality, the two basic ideas of democracy, are to some extent contradictory. Logically considered, freedom and equality are mutually exclusive, just as society and the individual are mutually exclusive.
Thomas MannRead
I tell them that if they will occupy themselves with the study of mathematics they will find in it the best remedy against the lusts of the flesh.
Thomas MannRead
Literature... is the union of suffering with the instinct for form.
Thomas MannRead
The Freudian theory is one of the most important foundation stones for an edifice to be built by future generations, the dwelling of a freer and wiser humanity.
Thomas MannRead
Similar quotes
When I write, I don't know what is going to emerge. I begin in a condition of complete unknowing, an utter nakedness of concept or goal. A word appears, another word appears, an image. It is a moving into mystery.
Jane HirshfieldRead
Reading a poem in translation is like kissing a woman through a veil.
Anne MichaelsRead
If a novelist tells you something she knows or thinks, and you believe her, that is not because either of you think she is God, but because she is doing her work - as a novelist.
A. S. ByattRead
It's weird what can trigger the beginning of a song or some bars. It can be a banging slice of apple pie or it can be smelling a certain perfume or something.
Black ThoughtRead
That which is not worth contemplating in life, is not worth recreating in art.
Ayn RandRead
The music comes through me, and I let it come the way it comes, and it shapes itself. I just hold space for it. I don't intend to write it for a purpose, but it comes as it comes and am proud of the way it can support change because I believe strongly in what I sing about.
Xavier RuddRead