“Criticism must never be sharpened into anatomy. The delicate veins of fancy may be traced, and the rich blood that gives bloom and health to the complexion of thought be resolved into its elements. Stop there. The life of the imagination, as of the body, disappears when we pursue it.” GivingMayBodyImaginationRichBloodElementsCriticismDisappearPursueFancyDelicateVeinsAnatomyComplexion Book:Pleasures of Literature Source: Pleasures of Literature
“To me, it's far more efficient to mobilize the imagination. It's far more efficient to hear a creaking step, for example, than to see the face of a monster, which usually looks ridiculous, and where you know that the blood is ketchup.” KnowsLooksFacesImaginationStepsBloodExampleRidiculousMonstersEfficientKetchup Author:Michael Haneke
“The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape, In forms imaginary, th' unguided days And rotten times that you shall look upon When I am sleeping with my ancestors.” LooksHeartFormImaginationSleepBloodMy HeartShapesLook UpAncestorImaginaryProphecyRotten Book:King Henry IV Part 2: Third Series Source: King Henry IV Part 2: Third Series
“[T]hese last few days where I've moped around damn near depressed for real, because of people who do not exist. Not really. I can buy them Christmas presents, but there is no way to send them. Sometimes I feel like I should be able to walk into the next room and there they will be, but they won't. These people do not exisit as flesh and blood, but there are different kinds of reality, and there are days when imagination feels very, very real.” PeopleWayFeelsShouldKindI CanDifferentRealSometimesRealityAbleLastsNextImaginationWalksRoomsBloodFleshDamnDifferent KindsFlesh And BloodChristmas PresentMopeds Author:Laurell K. Hamilton
“Not only did I rediscover every experience of my life, I had to live each unfulfilled desire as well—as though they’d been fulfilled. I saw that what transpires in the mind is just as real as any flesh and blood occurrence. What had only been imagination in life, now became tangible, each fantasy a full reality. I lived them all—while, at the same time, standing to the side, a witness to their, often, intimate squalor. A witness cursed with total objectivity.” MindWellsRealRealityDesireSidesImaginationFantasySawsBloodStandingFleshWitnessIntimateFulfilledObjectivityTangibleCursedFlesh And BloodSqualorUnfulfilled Desires Author:Richard Matheson
“You couldn't pretend you had lost nothing... you had to begin there, not let your blood freeze over. If your heart turned away at this, it would turn away at something greater, then more and more until your heart stayed averted, immobile, your imagination redistributed away from the world and back only toward the bad maps of yourself, the sour pools of your own pulse, your own tiny, mean, and pointless wants.” IfsWorldWantHeartMeanTurnsLostImaginationGreaterBloodTinyMapsPoolPulsePointlessFreezeSour Book:Birds of America: Stories Source: Birds of America: Stories
“I began to wonder whether anything truly existed, whether reality wasn't an unformed and gelatinous substance only half-captured by my senses....If that were true, each of us was living in absolute isolation. The thought terrified me. I was consoled by the idea that I could take that gelatin and mold it to create anything I wanted...At times I felt that the universe fabricated from the power of the imagination had stronger and more lasting contours than the blurred realm of the flesh-and-blood creatures around me.” IfsIdeasRealityWantedUniverseFeltImaginationHalfWonderBloodCreaturesAbsolutesStrongerFleshSensesSubstanceRealmsIsolationLastingTerrifiedMoldCapturedFlesh And BloodGelatin Author:Isabel Allende