“To do a dull thing with style-now that's what I call art.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Variant: It's better to do a dull thing with style than a dangerous thing without it.
“But, o, photography! as no art is,
Faithful and disappointing! That records
Dull days as dull, and hold-it smiles as frauds,
And will not censor blemishes,
Like washing-lines, and Hall's-Distemper boards”
— Philip Larkin, book The Less Deceived
Source: The Less Deceived (1955), Lines on a Young Lady's Photograph Album
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Do you have more details about the quote "But, o, photography! as no art is,
Faithful and disappointing! That records
Dull days as dull, and hold-it smiles as …" by Philip Larkin?
Philip Larkin42
English poet, novelist, jazz critic and librarian 1922–1985Related quotes
“Accept a miracle instead of wit,—
See two dull lines with Stanhope's pencil writ.”
Edward Young (1683–1765) English poet
Lines written with the Diamond Pencil of Lord Chesterfield; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“If everybody likes you, you're pretty dull.”
Bette Davis (1908–1989) film and television actress from the United States
“So living Nature, not dull Art,
Shall plan my ways and rule my heart.”
John Henry Newman (1801–1890) English cleric and cardinal
Nature and Art http://www.newmanreader.org/works/verses/verse5.html, st. 12 (1868).
Jimmy Kennedy (1902–1984) Irish songwriter
Song We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line
Song lyrics
“A book is like a man — clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer
On Publishing
Writers at Work (1977)
Context: A book is like a man — clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.
“American critics are like American universities. They both have dull and half-dead faculties.”
Edward Albee (1928–2016) American playwright
Address to New York Cultural League (6 May 1969)
Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist
Source: The Complete Calvin and Hobbes