Novels are not about expressing yourself, they're about something beautiful, funny, clever and organic. Self-expression ? Go and ring a bell in a yard if you want to express yourself.
Zadie SmithRead
Rock 'n' Roll is a combination of good ideas dried up by fads, terrible junk, hideous failings in taste and judgment, gullibility and manipulation, moments of unbelievable clarity and invention, pleasure, fun, vulgarity, excess, novelty and utter enervation.
Interpretation
Rock 'n' Roll embodies the juxtaposition of creativity and chaos, reflecting its diverse influences and flaws.
This quote by Greil Marcus suggests that Rock 'n' Roll music is a blend of both brilliance and absurdity. It captures the essence of the genre as a rich tapestry of ideas and experiences, combining moments of artistic clarity with the inevitable pitfalls of popular culture, including trends and superficiality. The quote highlights how the genre is shaped by both its highs and lows, creating a complex narrative that represents both the joy and the challenges of artistic expression.
In practice
In a discussion about the evolution of music genres during a lecture.
Novels are not about expressing yourself, they're about something beautiful, funny, clever and organic. Self-expression ? Go and ring a bell in a yard if you want to express yourself.
It takes time to get a dance right, to create something memorable.
What is the main problem of the actor? It is to keep the audience awake, and not let them go to sleep, then wake up and go home feeling they've wasted their money.
When I worked on a magazine, I learned that there are many, many writers writing that can't write at all; and they keep on writing all the cliches and bromides and 1890 plots, and poems about Spring and poems about Love, and poems they think are modern because they are done in slang or staccato style, or written with all the 'i's' small.
Photography doesn't teach you to express your emotions; it teaches you how to see.
You can't intellectually purge yourself of who you are. Whatever that is, it's going to come out in the wash, the film wash. What you are is going to be relevant, if not to yourself, to the movies you make.
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