“For when we are interested in the beauty of a thing, the oftener we can see it the better; but when we are interested only by the story of a thing, we get tired of hearing the same tale told over and over again, and stopping always at the same point — we want a new story presently, a newer and better one — and the picture of the day, and novel of the day, become as ephemeral as the coiffure or the bonnet of the day. Now this spirit is wholly adverse to the existence of any lovely art. If you mean to throw it aside to-morrow, you can never have it to-day.”
On the Condition of Modern Art, lecture (1867).
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John Ruskin 133
English writer and art critic 1819–1900Related quotes
Remarks at the launch of his book – At the Deep End http://www.zimeye.org/?p=41996&cpage=1
As quoted in "Mansfield Park and Film : An Interview with Patricia Rozema" by Hiba Moussa, in Literature/Film Quarterly 32, No. 4 (2004), p. 255
Context: You cannot underestimate what a radical thing it is to change from one art form to another. An author slaves to start with just the right word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph. The sounds of the words are crucial. But all the demands of words and prose are lifted when you make a movie. The physical presence makes many unnecessary and some necessary ones impossible. So you serve two masters as an adapting filmmaker: the author's intention and the needs of film. Sometimes "fidelity" can mean only focusing on one day of a story told over twenty years in a book.
America Can Be Saved! (1979) Sword of the Lord Publishers, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, p. 52-53, quoted at "The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party" http://www.theocracywatch.org/schools2.htm
A simple, mildly incredulous philippic http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/012308.html#012308, in Making Light, April 7, 2010.
Context: Book publishing was never a heaven “run by editors”, and it is by no means today a hell “run by accountants.” If our “sole interest” was “instant profit,” not only would we never do any number of the things we actually do every day, we probably wouldn’t be in book publishing at all.
Broadcast (3 March 1946), quoted in The Times (4 March 1946), p. 4
Prime Minister