“"The meaning of culture" is nothing less than the conduct of life itself, fortified, thickened, made more crafty and subtle, by contact with books and with art.”

“Paradoxically though it may seem, it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“There is nothing man desires more than a heroic life: there is nothing less common to men than heroism.”

Jacques Maritain (1882–1973) French philosopher

“I realized that there is nothing whatever outside of the life we have; that the "meaning of life" is nothing other than life itself, obstinately asserting itself against emptiness and nullity.”

Robert Hughes (1938–2012) Australian critic, historian, writer

“It’s not so much that nothing means
anything but more that it keeps meaning
nothing.
there’s no release, just gurus and self-
appointed gods and hucksters.
the more people say, the less there is to say.
even the best books are dry sawdust.”

Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last

“It worries me because it alters perception. TV, and the culture it anchors, and drowns out the subtle and vital information contact with the real world once provided.”

Bill McKibben (1960) American environmentalist and writer

“Art is only a means to life, to the life more abundant. It is not in itself the life more abundant. It merely points the way, something which is overlooked not only by the public, but very often by the artist himself. In becoming an end it defeats itself.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

“An increase in the productivity of labour means nothing more than that the same capital creates the same value with less labour, or that less labour creates the same product with more capital.”

Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist

“Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.”

Robert McKee (1941) American academic specialised in seminars for screenwriters

“Art isn't meaningless… It is in itself. It isn't in that it tries to make life less so.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Beautiful and Damned