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Style is not something applied. It is something that permeates. It is of the nature of that in which it is found, whether the poem, the manner of a god, the bearing of a man. It is not a dress.
Wallace Stevens
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Style is inherent to the essence of something rather than an external addition.

In this quote, Wallace Stevens emphasizes that style is an intrinsic quality that defines the essence of a work or a person, rather than merely a superficial element like clothing. He suggests that true style emerges from the core of an entity—whether it's a poem, a deity, or an individual—and is a natural expression of their being.

Themes

StyleArtEssenceExpressionNature

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about creativity, one could use this quote to illustrate the depth of artistic expression.

More from Wallace Stevens

Everything is complicated; if that were not so, life and poetry and everything else would be a bore.
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Most modern reproducers of life, even including the camera, really repudiate it. We gulp down evil, choke at good.
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After one has abandoned a belief in God, poetry is that essence which takes its place as life's redemption.
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Why should she give her bounty to the dead? What is divinity if it can come Only in silent shadows and in dreams?
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LIGHT FROM WITHIN my friend, cancer got you damn it: you had it beat for seven years at least. how did it come back? Why all that pain. again. and you, such a fighter you fought me over and over with tears and words and promises. you fought for me with honesty and a light so bright it hurts my heart. sweet lorna. at peace now finally no more battles, just light from within a flickering candle in the dark burns with you.
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Unfortunately there is nothing more inane than an Easter carol. It is a religious perversion of the activity of Spring in our blood.
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I’m just a storyteller, and the cinema happens to be my medium. I like it because it recreates life in movement, enlarges it, enhances it, distills it. For me, it’s far closer to the miraculous creation of life than, say, a painting or music or even literature. It’s not just an art form; it’s actually a new form of life, with its own rhythms, cadences, perspectives and transparencies. It’s my way of telling a story.
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