Interesting thing, these fellows never seem to get the idea of perspective-' The Bursar thought, or received the thought: that's because perspective is a lie. If I know a pond is round then why should I draw it oval? I will draw it round because round is true. Why should my brush lie to you just because my eye lies to me?
Interpretation
The quote challenges the concept of artistic representation versus reality, highlighting the importance of authenticity in art.
Terry Pratchett's quote explores the conflict between perception and truth in artistic expression. It suggests that while our eyes may deceive us by presenting a distorted view of reality, true artistry lies in the honest representation of what one knows to be true, rather than adhering to misleading conventions of perspective.
In practice
This quote can be used in an art class to discuss the importance of authenticity in artistic expression.
And then Jack chopped down what was the world's last beanstalk, adding murder and ecological terrorism to the theft, enticement, and trespass charges already mentioned, and all the giant's children didn't have a daddy anymore. But he got away with it and lived happily ever after, without so much as a guilty twinge about what he had done...which proves that you can be excused for just about anything if you are a hero, because no one asks inconvenient questions.
They've got something they do it with, I think it's called a mocracy, and it means everyone in the whole country can say who the new Tyrant is. One man ... one vet. ... Everyone has ... the vet. Except for women, of course. And children. And criminals. And slaves. And stupid people. And people of foreign extraction. And people disapproved of for, er, various reasons. And lots of other people. But everyone apart from them. It's a very enlightened civilization.
Geography is just physics slowed down, with a couple of trees stuck in it.
You can't trample infidels when you're a tortoise. I mean, all you could do is give them a meaningful look.
Any fool could be a witch with a runic knife, but it took skill to be one with an apple corer.
People look down on stuff like geography and meteorology, and not only because they're standing on one and being soaked by the other. They don't look quite like real science. But geography is only physics slowed down and with a few trees stuck on it, and meteorology is full of excitingly fashionable chaos and complexity. And summer isn't a time. It's a place as well. Summer is a moving creature and likes to go south for the winter.
If you can even manage to tell exactly what a song is about, all you do is put that song in a box forever, and it loses its evocative power.
Intolerance respecting other people's religion is toleration itself in comparison with intolerance respecting other people's art.
The artist is chosen by God to fulfill his commands and must never be overwhelmed by public opinion.
There's a reason poets often say, 'Poetry saved my life,' for often the blank page is the only one listening to the soul's suffering, the only one registering the story completely, the only one receiving all softly and without condemnation.
If only life could be a little more tender and art a little more robust.
In the earliest ages science was poetry, as in the later poetry has become science.
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