“My favourite symbols were those I did not understand.”

— Adolph Gottlieb

1950s, Conversations With Artists, 1957

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "My favourite symbols were those I did not understand." by Adolph Gottlieb?

Adolph Gottlieb 27

American artist 1903–1974

Related quotes

“And I understand they are, in a sense, artists? That is to say, they understand the creative process, the sublimation of fact to symbol and the use of symbol to suggest emotion?”

Jack Vance book Space Opera

Source: Space Opera (1965), Chapter 8 (p. 65)

“The idea that the Biblical stories are symbolic is charitable to the point of absurdity. What would we think of a university professor who, happening upon unambiguous errors in a favourite student’s work, concluded that the student was speaking symbolically and awarded top marks?”

Steve Stewart-Williams (1971)

Source: Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Think You Know (2010), p. 63

“I realized that searching was my symbol, the emblem of those who go out at night with nothing in mind, the motives of a destroyer of compasses.”

Julio Cortázar (1914–1984) Argentinian writer

“If a symbol should be discovered in a painting of mine, it was not my intention. It is a result I did not seek. It is something that may be found afterwards, and which can be interpreted according to taste.”

Marc Chagall (1887–1985) French artist and painter

In Marc Chagall 1887-1985: Painting As Poetry by Ingo F. Walther, Rainer Metzger, p. 78
after 1930

“I let characters and symbols emerge from me, as if I were dreaming.”

Eugéne Ionesco (1909–1994) Romanian playwright

The Paris Review interview (1984)
Context: I let characters and symbols emerge from me, as if I were dreaming. I always use what remains of my dreams of the night before. Dreams are reality at its most profound, and what you invent is truth because invention, by its nature, can’t be a lie. Writers who try to prove something are unattractive to me, because there is nothing to prove and everything to imagine. So I let words and images emerge from within. If you do that, you might prove something in the process.

“It’s not so much watching them but understanding how they were made – the preparation and willingness to deviate when necessary especially if you’re on a low budget, I also took every film I made seriously and did my best on every one.”

Roger Corman (1926) American film director and film producer

Roger Corman still the Cult Classic King http://www.thespectrum.com/story/entertainment/2016/10/17/roger-corman-still-cult-classic-king/92296836/ (October 17, 2016)

“Watching the white people eat would make my empty stomach churn and I would grow vaguely angry. Why could I not eat when I was hungry? Why did I always have to wait until others were through? I could not understand why some people had enough food and others did not.”

Richard Wright book Black Boy

Black Boy (1945)

“We, the Poles, do not understand war as a symbol but as a real fight.”

Wladyslaw Sikorski (1881–1943) Polish military and political leader

in World of Tanks: 1 Polski Odrodzony Batalion Pancerny im. gen. Sikorskiego http://worldoftanks.eu/community/clans/500019796-1POBP/ and Cytatybaza: Władysław Sikorski http://cytatybaza.pl/autorzy/wladyslaw-sikorski.html
Original: My Polacy rozumiemy wojnę nie jak symbol, lecz jako prawdziwą walkę.

“What I did understand from the rebirth process was that the rebirth reproduced a physical duplicate of the original. But this is my point. It is physical.”

David Gemmell book The Swords of Night and Day

What truly makes a man who he is? Is it the strength of his arms, or the courage of his soul? You have your own soul, Harad. You are not Druss. Live your own life."
Source: Drenai series, The Swords of Night and Day, Ch. 8

“Previously I did not understand why I got no answer to my question; today I do not understand how I could believe I was capable of asking. But I didn’t really believe, I only asked.”

Franz Kafka book The Zürau Aphorisms

36
The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918)

“My favourite symbols were those I did not understand.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Adolph Gottlieb 27

Related quotes

Related topics