“There are no rules but uniformity can make it seem as though there are rules.”
Singing School
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Robert Pinsky21
American poet, editor, literary critic, academic. 1940Related quotes
“Learn the rules, break the rules, make up new rules, break the new rules.”
Marvin Bell (1937) Poet
"Thirty-two Statements About Writing Poetry" http://www.coppercanyonpress.org/400_opportunities/430_gettingpub/bell.cfm, statement # 5, The Writer's Chronicle, Commemorative Issue (Copper Canyon Press, 2002).
“Works of art make rules but rules do not make works of art.”
Claude Debussy (1862–1918) French composer
As quoted in Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought (1992) by John Paynter, p. 590
Unsourced variant: Works of art make rules; rules do not make works of art.
“Any fool can make a rule
And every fool will mind it.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
February 3, 1860
Journals (1838-1859)
Source: http://thoreau.library.ucsb.edu/writings_journals_pdfs/J15f4-f6.pdf#page=289
Source: Journal #14
Saul D. Alinsky (1909–1972) American community organizer and writer
Source: Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals (1971), p. 128
“The rules always seem to be in the service of someone else.”
Ron English (1959) American artist
Ron English's Fauxlosophy (2016)
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer
Source: A Thousand Mornings
“Remember though thatTHERE IS NO GENERAL RULE FOR CONVERTING A LIST INTO A SCALAR.”
Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl
In the perl man page.
Documentation
“There are no rules. We do whatever seems the most fun.”
R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) American writer
Bjorn to Captain Roadstrum, Ch. 2
Space Chantey (1968)