Quotessence
Home / Authors / J. G. Ballard
J. G. Ballard

J. G. Ballard Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllWorldPeopleThinkingRealityWayHumansIfsImaginationCarFiction

Famous J. G. Ballard Quotes

“I define Inner Space as an imaginary realm in which on the one hand the outer world of reality, and on the other the inner world of the mind meet and merge. Now, in the landscapes of the surrealist painters, for example, one sees the regions of Inner Space; and increasingly I believe that we will encounter in film and literature scenes which are neither solely realistic nor fantastic. In a sense, it will be a movement in the interzone between both spheres.”

WorldMindBelieveHandsRealityFilmLiteratureI BelieveSpaceExampleMovementScenePainterFantasticLandscapeRealmsEncountersRegionsRealisticSpheresImaginaryInner WorldOuter WorldsSurrealist
Author:J. G. Ballard
Create image

“Art is the principal way in which the human mind has tried to remake the world in a way that makes sense. The carefully edited, slow-motion, action replay of a rugby tackle, a car crash or a sex act has more significance than the original event. Thanks to virtual reality, we will soon be moving into a world where a heightened super-reality will consist entirely of action replays, and reality will therefore be all the more rich and meaningful.”

WorldWayMindHumansArtRealityActionMovingSexRichCarEventsArt IsOriginalsMeaningfulThanksMake SenseSignificanceHuman MindPrincipalCrashRugbyRemakesVirtual RealityEditedSlow MotionReplayCar Crash
Author:J. G. Ballard
Create image

“For the sake of my children and grandchildren, I hope that the human talent for self-destruction can be successfully controlled, or at least channelled into productive forms, but I doubt it. I think we are moving into extremely volatile and dangerous times, as modern electronic technologies give mankind almost unlimited powers to play with its own psychopathology as a game.”

ThinkingGivingHumansChildrenSelfPlayMovingFormGamesTechnologyDoubtModernMankindTalentDangerousDestructionSakeMy ChildrenProductiveControlledUnlimitedGrandchildrenSelf DestructionChildren And GrandchildrenPsychopathologyUnlimited Power
Author:J. G. Ballard
Create image

“Human beings today are surrounded by huge institutions we can never penetrate: the City, the banking system, political and advertising conglomerates, vast entertainment enterprises. They've made themselves user friendly, but they define the tastes to which we conform. They're rather subtle, subservient tyrants, but no less sinister for that.”

HumansMadeTodayPoliticalHuman BeingsCitiesStreetsHugeWallTasteInstitutionsEntertainmentLondonAdvertisingEnterpriseSubtleFriendlyTyrantsUsersConformBankingPenetrateSinisterSubservientBanking SystemUser Friendly
Author:J. G. Ballard
Create image

“The technological landscape of the present day has enfranchised its own electorates - the inhabitants of the marketing zones in the consumer society, television audiences and news magazine readerships, who vote with money at the cash counter rather than with ballot paper at the polling boot. These huge and passive electorates are wide open to any opportunist using the psychological weaponry of fear and anxiety, elements that are carefully blanched out of the world of domestic products and consumer software.”

WorldAudienceTelevisionProductsHugeElementsPaperAnxietyNewsVoteMarketingWidePsychologicalMagazinesConsumersLandscapeZoneSoftwareCashBootsPassiveTechnologicalBallotsPresent DayElectorateReadershipWeaponryOpportunistPolling
Author:J. G. Ballard
Create image

“We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind - mass merchandising, advertising, politics conducted as a branch of advertising, the instant translation of science and technology into popular imagery, the increasing blurring and intermingling of identities within the realm of consumer goods, the preempting of any free or original imaginative response to experience by the television screen. We live inside an enormous novel.”

WorldKindFictionTechnologyMassAdvertisingInstantBranchesTranslationsImageryScience And TechnologyMerchandising
Author:J. G. Ballard
Create image

“The reptiles had taken over the city. Once again they were the dominant form of life. Looking up at the ancient impassive faces, Kerans could understand the curious fear they roused, rekindling archaic memories of the terrifying jungles of the Paleocene, when the reptiles had gone down before the emergent mammals, and sense the implacable hatred one zoological class feels towards another that usurps it.”

FeelsFacesFormMemoriesAnimalCitiesClassGoneTakenHatredAncientCuriousDominantJungleMammalsReptiles
Book:The Drowned World and the Wind From Nowhere
Create image

“So he left the lagoon and entered the jungle again, within a few days was completely lost, following the lagoons southward through the increasing rain and heat, attacked by alligators and giant bats, a second Adam searching for the forgotten paradises of the reborn Sun.”

LostLeftSunRainForgottenFollowingHeatGiantsParadiseAdamBatsApocalypseJungleRebornAlligatorsLagoons
Book:The Drowned World and the Wind From Nowhere
Create image

“The catastrophe story, whoever may tell it, represents a constructive and positive act by the imagination rather than a negative one, an attempt to confront the terrifying void of a patently meaningless universe by challenging it at its own game. [. . .] Each one of these fantasies represents an arraignment of the finite, an attempt to dismantle the formal structure of time and space which the universe wraps around us at the moment we first achieve consciousness.”

FirstsMayMomentsStoriesUniverseGamesImaginationChallengesSpaceConsciousnessFantasyAchieveNegativeStructureMeaninglessVoidFormalCatastropheApocalypseFiniteTime And SpaceWrapsConstructive
Author:J. G. Ballard
Create image

“Films, like memories, seem to re-shoot themselves over the years, reflecting our latest needs and obsessions. In many cases they can change completely, and reveal unexpected depths and shallows. Will Four Weddings and a Funeral be seen one day as a vicious social satire? Could Jaws become as tearful and sentimental as Bambi?”

NeedsYearsSeemsFilmSocialMemoriesCasesFourOne DayDepthObsessionUnexpectedSatireFuneralSentimentalViciousReflectingOur Wedding
Author:J. G. Ballard
Create image

“Even one's own home is a kind of anthology of advertisers, manufacturers, motifs and presentation techniques. There's nothing 'natural' about one's home these days. The furnishings, the fabrics, the furniture, the appliances, the TV, and all the electronic equipment - we're living inside commercials.”

KindHomeNaturalTvsTechniqueThese DaysFabricEquipmentFurniturePresentationAnthologyAdvertisersAppliancesMotifsFurnishings
Book:Conversations
Create image