“...art deals, at its best, with what has never been observed, or observed only peripherally-darts from what is to what might have been-asking with total interest and sobriety such questions as 'what if apple trees could talk?' or 'what if the haughty old woman next door should fall in love with Mr. Powers, our mailman?' The artist's imagination, or the world it builds, is the laboratory of the unexperienced, both the heroic and the unspeakable.” WorldLoveLifeArtArtistImaginationFictionHeroicNew Book:On Moral Fiction Source: On Moral Fiction
“To write with taste, in the highest sense, is to write [...] so that no one commits suicide, no one despairs; to write [...] so that people understand, sympathize, see the universality of pain, and feel strengthened, if not directly encouraged to live on. If there is good to be said, the writer should say it. If there is bad to be said, he should say it in a way that reflects the truth that, though we see the evil, we choose to continue among the living. The true artist [...] gets his sense of worth and honor from his conviction that art is powerful--” PeopleIfsWayFeelsShouldWritingArtSaidPainArtistEvilPowerfulHonorTasteDespairHighestArt IsSuicideConvictionCommitTrue ArtistsUniversality Author:John Gardner
“The true artist plays mad with his soul, labors at the very lip of the volcano, but remembers and clings to his purpose, which is as strong as the dream. He is not someone possessed, like Cassandra, but a passionate, easily tempted explorer who fully intends to get home again, like Odysseus.” SoulPlayHomeDreamRememberPurposeArtistStrongLaborMadLipsPassionatePossessedTemptedExplorersVolcanoesTrue ArtistsOdysseus Author:John Gardner
