“The more horrifying this world becomes, the more art becomes abstract.” WorldArtThis WorldAbstract Author:Ellen Key
“I don't think poverty provides that much of an obstacle to education as one thinks. I think the bigger obstacle to education is the fact that it's a very hard thing to do for a first-generation schoolgoer. Because not to have parents at home who can help you, motivate you, is a problem even when the parents are in the abstract very keen on children being educated.” ThinkingFirstsChildrenHardFactsHelpingProblemHomeParentPovertyGenerationsBiggerObstaclesEducatedThings To DoAbstractHard Things Author:Amartya Sen
“I think the most important work that is going on has to do with the search for very general and abstract features of what is sometimes called universal grammar: general properties of language that reflect a kind of biological necessity rather than logical necessity; that is, properties of language that are not logically necessary for such a system but which are essential invariant properties of human language and are known without learning. We know these properties but we don't learn them. We simply use our knowledge of these properties as the basis for learning.” ThinkingKnowsHumansKindImportantSometimesUseLanguageKnownEssentialsUniversalBasesPropertyFeaturesAbstractLogicalGrammarHuman LanguageImportant Work Author:Noam Chomsky
“You can imagine a different world in which a number of species developed with different genetically determined linguistic systems. It hasn't happened in evolution. What has happened is that one species has developed, and the genetic structure of this species happens to involve a variety of intricate abstract principles of linguistic organization that, therefore, necessarily constrain every language, and, in fact, create the basis for learning language as a way of organizing experience rather than constituting something learned from experience.” WorldWayDifferentFactsHappensLanguageNumbersPrinciplesImagineHappenedEvolutionOrganizationBasesStructureSpeciesDeterminedVarietyAbstractDifferent WorldsIntricateConstrainLearning Language Author:Noam Chomsky
“A lot of abstract painters seem to be doing everything all at once now. And so these different styles are jibing and not so jibing, and they're clashing. But they all seem to be working in their own domain. Whereas back in the '60s, man, it was kind of a dull world. It was a vital world. But it was kind of contained and not too recognized by the public. Now art is absolutely recognized by the public.” MenWorldKindArtDifferentSeemsStyleArt IsPainterAbstractDullDomainDifferent Styles Author:Edward Ruscha
“When I make films I'm very intuitive; I'm instinctive. When you are shooting there's little time to think about abstract ideas, it's about getting things done, getting them right, and trying to channel the energies and get the best of whatever you have on your set. It's only once the film is finished that it's like, "Okay, let's try to figure out what happened." Try to figure out exactly what I did.” ThinkingTryingLittlesIdeasDoneFilmEnergyHappenedFiguresOkayFinishedShootingAbstractIntuitiveThings DoneLittle TimeTime To ThinkGetting Things Done Author:Olivier Assayas
“I consider my work non-objective and I think abstract is an abstraction of something, like a landscape. Abstraction means something is abstracted. It relates to something. Non-objective relates to nothing. It has no object.” ThinkingMeanObjectsObjectivesRelateLandscapeAbstractAbstraction Author:Pat Steir
“The abstract expressionists had that thing of, subject matter becomes content, content becomes form. And I always thought there was no room for style. I felt with my painting, the style really is the content. The style holds everything together.” MatterTogetherFormFeltRoomsSubjectsStylePaintingAbstractSubject Matter Author:Alex Katz
“Picasso and Matisse were the guys I wanted to get away from, and cubism is all still lifes. Their paintings are all closed drawings. And still life is a perfect form for that. By the mid-'50s, I sort of dropped the still life. The large picture was a way of getting around them, too. The abstract expressionists were also into the large form because it was a way of getting around Matisse and Picasso. Picasso can't paint big paintings. Matisse didn't bother after a certain point.” WayStillsBigsWantedFormLife IsGuyCertainPerfectPaintingPaintDrawingBotherAbstractGet AwayStill LifeCubismMatisse Author:Alex Katz
“The inner and outer, the visible and invisible, the abstract and concrete - you've got to get the balance right (not that I do, but it's something to aim for).” BalanceAimInvisibleAbstractVisibleConcrete Author:Elaine Equi
“I met Michael Snow and Stan Brakhage the second day after I arrived, you know. I had never seen or heard of Brakhage. For me, it was a revolution, because I was well educated in film, but American-style experimental film was known to me in the abstract, and I had seen practically nothing. I had seen a film then that Noël Burch had found and was distributing called Echoes of Silence. It was a beautiful film, three hours long. It goes forever and it was in black and white, very grainy, and I saw that film and I thought...it was not New Wave. It was really a new concept of cinema.” LongBeautifulFilmBlackHoursSilenceForeverRevolutionWaveSnowEducatedAbstractBlack And White Author:Babette Mangolte
“When you start to really travel and you get to these abstract like places in the world, you would see certain people's names. It seemed like we could go anywhere. Like when we went to Afghanistan, you'd see in the dressing room Run DMC's name. Certain rappers are like journey men.” MenWorldRunningJourneyAbstractAfghanistanRapper Author:Ice T
“I never found anybody I wanted to spend my life with. People say, "Didn't you want to get married?" Well, sure, but it's not abstract, there has to be someone you want to marry. I'm pretty traditional. Marriage would have to come first, before kids.” PeopleKidsMarriedAbstract Author:Condoleezza Rice
“It is really something, the extent to which we allow ourselves to live without thinking of things that we know, in the abstract, are bad, and are going on right now, somewhere far away. We think, "Well, what are you gonna do?" In a way, that little instinct, that "What are you gonna do?" is the most dangerous thing in the world.” ThinkingWorldDangerousInstinctAbstractFar Away Author:Ben H. Winters
“terrorism is interesting to a novelist because it's a crime that's driven by an idea, as opposed to some kind of base materialist impulse. It's not like stealing from someone's house, or even assassinating someone. There are very complex ideological reasons behind these almost abstract acts of violence.” KindReasonHouseInterestingViolenceCrimeTerrorismDrivenStealingImpulseAbstractIdeological Author:Karan Mahajan
“No one else writes like Gord Downie, so it's difficult to compare him. He can work in the abstract and still somehow be really specific. He lets parts of his consciousness in that most writers aren't able to do, myself included. I don't feel like I have that access to the surreal and the somehow beautifully meaningful non-sequitur - that fits perfectly. I can never figure that out, how he does that.” WritingDifficultConsciousnessFitMeaningfulCompareAbstractSurreal Author:John K. Samson
“With abstract work, I never was quite sure what it was that felt right about the painting, but I did know that I responded to it and I liked whatever it was offering me. That's something that seems to happen as well when I'm writing, where maybe things that don't necessarily make a lot of logical sense are put together, and yet we struggle to make sense of these things somehow. I'm not quite sure why that is; it's something about human nature, I guess.” WritingTogetherStruggleHuman NaturePaintingMake SenseAbstractLogical Author:Kurt Wagner
“There's that great Irish joke: a man is lost in the countryside, stops a passer-by: 'how do I get to Dublin?'. The passer-by says 'well, I wouldn't start from here'. Rather than starting by talking in the abstract about materialism, dualism, 'material stuff' and things like that in regard to the mind, I would rather start from somewhere else.” MenMindJokesAbstractMaterialismCountrysideDualism Author:Tim Crane
“The smaller the instrument or more hidden it is such as electronics, the more esoteric it becomes and in my mind becomes boring watching someone go like this and that has no direct... It's just a complete abstract motion, not attach to any sound.” MindDirectBoringAbstract Author:Dan Deacon
“Indonesian people are living in constant fear, in horror. Often they do not realize it, because this state of mind, this 'living in fear', is considered 'biasa'. This fear, also explains why almost nobody rebels, or is willing to start a rebellion against the regime. People are paralyzed by an abstract fear, which actually has its roots in ignorance and insecurity.” PeopleMindRealizingIgnoranceHorrorAbstractInsecurityRebellionState Of MindRebel Author:Andre Vltchek
“Global inequality is such an abstract concept, simply because there is no global government. Telling people in rich countries who have had no increase in real incomes, stagnant median wages and so on, that on the other hand global inequality is going down because people who are much poorer than them are getting richer - it's something that maybe they would like in an abstract sense, because everyone is happy there are fewer poor Chinese, but you may not be as happy if these Chinese are taking your job.” PeopleRealCountryPoorRichInequalityChineseAbstractGet RichStagnant Author:Branko Milanovic
“Touring was an abstract idea for me in the beginning. I didn't know where it was going to take me, but I knew that I wanted to go and play for lots of people. I always had that image in my mind. I had no idea what the touring experience was like, and how it was going to unfold, but I knew that I wanted to tour. Then it just started happening slowly started happening.” PeopleMindAbstract Author:Justin Nozuka
“I would say that it is important to have it in your mind, what your attention is and what you want to do. Really just go for it, and fall and go for it again, and learn and continue to go for it. First, it starts as an abstract idea and you have this dream and desire. It will take you to one place, and in that time you act in a certain way and you do what you have to do in that one place to get you to the next place. It is constantly building into this idea that you have.” MindImportantDreamDesireFallAttentionBuildingAbstract Author:Justin Nozuka
“Transcendental meditation is one particular form of mantra meditation that allows your mind to experience progressively abstract fields of awareness. And ultimately you settle down in the space between your thoughts. The space between your thoughts is pure consciousness, and it's a field of possibilities. It's a field of creativity. It's a field of correlation. It's also a field of uncertainty. It's also a field where intention actualizes its own fulfillment. So that meditation allows you to contact this field, which is very primordial - the ground state of our existence.” MindExistenceConsciousnessCreativityMeditationAwarenessPossibilityIntentionUncertaintySettlingFulfillmentAbstractTranscendentalSettling Down Author:Deepak Chopra
“I'm not religious in any way but I am very spiritual. Music is holy to me. It's like my religion. It's sacred. It feels unearthly; it makes me feel a way that talking to somebody doesn't make me feel, it's something you can't even wrap your head around. It's not abstract, you can't even grasp it - that's what music is to me.” SpiritualReligiousHolyMusic IsAbstract Author:BANKS
“When you're playing a spirit from another dimension, you really can do anything and get as abstract as you want and still have a context that will work within the movie. I wanted Ghost Rider to move in a way where it would be like a bad dream. I thought about cobra snakes, and the way that they will show you their backs and sway in a rhythmic motion and almost lull you to sleep before suddenly attacking. Well, I put that into the movie. And I decided to move my head in the jerky way a praying mantis does. So, I did all these things to give the movie a feeling of otherness.” GivingFeelingsDreamMovingSpiritSleepPrayingGhostAbstractBad DreamGhost Rider Author:Nicolas Cage
“I love going to the runway shows. It's not so much for me a shopping trip as it is the appreciation of the craft of these design geniuses who come up with beautiful color combinations and beautiful proportion suggestions and these kind of ideas, so I look at the runway shows in very different ways, just kind of a romantic artistic interpretation of how they would like to see fashion going forward, but for me it's much more abstract. The runway shows are much more abstract than you know what ends up on people is much more real to me.” PeopleKindDifferentRealBeautifulFashionDesignGeniusAppreciationArtisticAbstract Author:Scott Schuman
“For instance, members of the elite will never allow their children to become musicians normally, because it's - not embarrassing - but it's not done. There's a very famous composer from the '70s from a well-known family that disowned him, and he's a man, so there's this historical precedence with their relationships with musicians - not so much music as it's this abstract thing - but externally with artists.” MenChildrenDoneArtistMusicianHistoricalAbstractComposerEmbarrassingVery Famous Author:Ayshay
“The Armstrong record that I personally like the most, is a recording of a song by Harold Arlen called, "I Got a Right to Sing the Blues" . Most of Armstrong's solos tended to stick pretty close to the melody. But for some reason, it's like he let go of the tether and suddenly he's playing this beautiful high, almost abstract line that's floating above the beat. I compare it to the way that a 19th century operatic tenor might have sang an Aria because he's just completely let loose of the background and he's making this magic sort of flying above the staff.” ReasonBeautifulSongMagicLetting GoFlyingCompareAbstractMelody19th Century Author:Terry Teachout
“Sometimes I'll have an end in mind, but it's always false, always corny, just a dumb idea anyone could have, sitting on a barstool. An abstract thesis with no real life inside it. And then I start writing and the writing itself confounds me, taking away the comfort of knowing the end in advance. How is that even possible? Doesn't the conclusion come at the end? How can you begin with one - that seems odd, right?” WritingMindRealSometimesComfortReal LifeConclusionDumbOddAbstractCornyThesis Author:Charles D'Ambrosio
“Other ways of looking at the environmental or climate change stuff is to frame it in the context that it is simultaneously a public health issue. One out of eight premature deaths worldwide happens because of air pollution. The worst power plant in America kills 278 people a year and causes 445 heart attacks. So, when we improve air quality we improve our lives, and at the same time we improve the climate as well. We must see climate policy from this perspective and not as an abstract threat that may threaten our survival in 100 years.” PeopleHeartQualityWorstPolicyPerspectiveSurvivalThreatPlantEnvironmentalClimate ChangeAbstractPollutionPublic HealthHeart AttackAir Pollution Author:Michael Bloomberg
“As a general habit and general tendency, I prefer not to bog a piece down with a great number of transitory, contemporary references, because in the end, I'm concerned, not in an abstract way, but an actual way, with creating a world which has a universality to it - even though what goes on is made up of texture and detail, contemporary detail.” WorldHabitConcernedAbstract Author:Mike Leigh
“There's art on the show that's really bad - these cliché Abstract Expressionist gestural things. It's almost like extensions of my performance, because in the scene I'm really mad.” ArtSceneMadAbstract Author:James Franco
“In abstract mathematics or abstract art, the purpose is to describe inner states of our mind, and to explore the limits of our own imagination and our capacity for creativity. While this has some applications in the world, I think it leads to a distance from the world. Going to Congo was for me an act of seeking proximity, of breaking that distance. With abstraction, which is brilliant and vain, you divorce yourself from any kind of proximity to other people.” PeopleThinkingWorldMindKindArtPurposeImaginationCreativityMathematicsDistanceDivorceBrilliantVainAbstractApplicationCongo Author:Anjan Sundaram
“If I play the melody, even if I play it in an abstract manner, it's instantly recognizable. Even when I was studying to be a classical percussionist, I think I was a more lyrical percussionist; melody is the heart and soul of the music.” ThinkingHeartSoulStudyAbstractMelodyHeart And SoulLyrical Author:Stefon Harris
“Every art critic and every writer doesn't have a frame to start off from. If I made a statement saying, "This is Abstract Expressionism," they could go, "Well, he failed miserably," or, "Fantastic, this is a new genius!" But in art history, I don't see any of the artists I like spewing bullshit. I don't see anyone recording it or pronouncing what they were doing.” ArtArtistGeniusCriticsFantasticAbstractBullshitArt History Author:Damian Loeb
“The artists catch what's in the air. It's not because the artist "felt like it" or is a guru who channels the truth of the universe in some opaque, abstract way, or even in a realistic painting. The comics artist is someone who has the humility to set himself up in public culture and to communicate with the reader. If your image doesn't make sense, it's your problem, and I shouldn't publish it.” ProblemArtistCultureUniverseHumilityPaintingCommunicateMake SenseAbstractRealisticPublishGuru Author:Francoise Mouly
“Within a social structure, a familial structure, or a cultural structure of various kinds, there is a substitute for actual freedom. I mean, actual freedom is a very abstract notion; we have no idea what it means, except within a context - freedom to do what? So within these social structures, freedom becomes defined as power, your ability to make choices, and the power relationship within a family, any family.” KindMeanChoicesAbilityVariousAbstract Author:Katherine Dunn
“I love theater, a performance and designing a visual spectacle. It is like creating a composition with clothes, which have to fit the psychology as well as the body of characters. The performance is frozen in time, the clothes have to stay reliable and help to define the story. Fashion can be much more abstract. It needs no story because the woman is the story. She supplies the text and content. Fashion for retail is the opposite of frozen, it has to change and morph constantly to stay relevant - to be the "fashion.".” CharacterHelpingPsychologyFashionDesignFitAbstractRelevantComposition Author:Isabel Toledo
“I think people feel very comfortable reviewing the idea of me, as opposed to what I've actually written. Most of the time, when people write about one of my books, they're really just writing about what they think I may or may not represent, as sort of this abstract entity. Is that unfair? Not really. If I put myself in this position where I'm going to kind of weave elements of memoir into almost everything, well, I suppose that's going to happen.” PeopleThinkingWritingKindBookMemoirAbstractUnfair Author:Chuck Klosterman
“I want the pictures to be working in both directions. I accept that they speak about me, and yet at the same time, I want and expect them to function in terms of the viewer and their experience. With these abstract pictures, although the eye recognizes them as photographic rather than painted, the eye also tries to connect them to reality. There's always this association machine working in the brain, and that is why it is important to me that they are actually photographic and not painted.” TryingImportantRealityEyeSpeakTermBrainAcceptingAbstract Author:Wolfgang Tillmans
“The original interest in making pictures that don't directly depict came around '97 or '98, when I felt there was such an acceleration of images in the world, and that was before Flickr and so on. So I felt a need to slow down how one consumes photographs. With the abstract pictures, I was engaged in trying to find new images, but in practice, it was a bit like throwing a wrench in the spokes. The omnipresence of photography is at a level that it has never been in the history of the world. I feel really curious to now reengage and see what the camera can do for me.” WorldTryingInterestPhotographyPhotographCuriousAbstractSlow DownWorld History Author:Wolfgang Tillmans
“I love monsters. If I go to a church, I'm more interested in the gargoyles than the saints. I really don't care much about the idea of normal - that's very abstract to me. I think that perfection is practically unattainable but imperfection is right at hand. So that's why I love monsters: because they represent a side of us we should actually embrace and celebrate.” ThinkingCareChurchPerfectionEmbraceSaintCelebrateAbstractImperfection Author:Guillermo del Toro
“Wisdom in groups emerges as a product of commitments we make with ourselves and to each other. These stances are not abstract rules but tangible practices that must be renewed each time we are in groups. They are essentially commitments and attitudes that foster collaboration and positive collective action.” ActionAttitudeCommitmentAbstractCollaboration Author:Alan Briskin
“I don't have to think too hard to keep my writing within a certain narrative thread. That happens because certain words trigger other associations you have in your mind. So, there is this inherent narrative in the end, whether it is abstract or what.” ThinkingWritingMindAbstract Author:Luke Temple
“Jazz musicians like John Coltrane needed these very clear titles for their abstract music, and your decision to bring voices into your music as a way to tap into content. It's related to the way my text-based work still functions as abstraction for me. If I repeat a sentence down a canvas, the text starts to smudge and disappear. It essentially becomes an abstract piece. The meaning of the text is still there.” DecisionMusicianJazzDisappearAbstractCanvasJazz MusicJazz MusicianColtrane Author:Glenn Ligon
“I loathe when architects only analyze architecture in intellectual, nonvisual ways. I really love direct response, and that's very pop. I don't want to discuss abstract transparencies with a bunch of kooks.” IntellectualDirectResponseArchitectureAbstractArchitectTransparency Author:Peter Marino
“I don't know if embarrassed is the right word, about pop, but I prefer the abstract and the distorted in music. And I keep writing these proper melodies and harmonies, and they're the bits that get thrown out of the records! And I have quite a collection.” WritingHarmonyAbstractMelodyEmbarrassed Author:Jason Pierce
“In an odd way I thought I was lowering the bar for myself, in saying, well, I'll make a pop album. But in a way it's kind of harder to make pop music. It's like the more abstract you get with music, you get into that emperor's new clothes thing, where you can go anywhere, and just claim that your audience may not be prepared to go with you. But with pop music, I think everybody understands the form, everybody knows what it's meant to do. So I would say it's harder to write that kind of music.” ThinkingWritingKindAudienceOddAbstractBe PreparedPop Music Author:Jason Pierce
“Life holds many, many, many mysteries, abstract things we all think about. In a film when things get abstract, some people don't appreciate that and they want to leave the theater. Others love to dream, get lost, try to figure things out. I'm one of those people. I like a film, a story that holds concrete things but also abstractions. So when ideas come along that have those things, I'm falling in love and going to work.” PeopleThinkingTryingDreamFilmFallMysteryAppreciateFalling In LoveAbstractConcreteGoing To Work Author:David Lynch