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Composition Quotes

Browse 653 quotes about Composition.

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Composition Quotes

“To write is, indeed, no unpleasing employment, when one sentiment readily produces another, and both ideas and expressions present themselves at the first summons; but such happiness, the greatest genius does not always obtain; and common writers know it only to such a degree, as to credit its possibility. Composition is, for the most part, an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and from which the attention is every moment starting to more delightful amusements.”

KnowsWritingMindFirstsDoeIdeasMomentsCommonEffortAttentionPossibilityProduceExpressionGeniusDegreesPerseveranceStartingCreditEmploymentResolutionSentimentsSteadyCompositionDelightfulAmusementDiligence
Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson: The Adventurer and Idler
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“A composition which dazzles at first sight by gaudy epithets, or brilliant turns or expression, or glittering trains of imagery, may fade gradually from the mind, leaving no enduring impression; but words which flow fresh and warm from a full heart, and which are instinct with the life and breath of human feeling, pass into household memories, and partake of the immortality of the affections from which they spring.”

MindFirstsHumansHeartMayFeelingsTurnsMemoriesStyleExpressionSpringFlowSightBreathsTrainInstinctEndureLeavingAffectionWarmBrilliantImpressionImmortalityFadesHouseholdCompositionImageryDazzleGaudyEpithetFull Hearts
Book:Essays and Reviews
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“A few words worthy to be remembered suffice to give an idea of a great mind. There are single thoughts that contain the essence of a whole volume, single sentences that have the beauties of a large work, a simplicity so finished and so perfect that it equals in merit and in excellence a large and glorious composition.”

GivingMindIdeasWholePerfectEssenceExcellenceSimplicityWorthySentencesFinishedRememberedMeritGloriousVolumeCompositionFew WordsGreat MindsSingle Sentence
Book:Some of the
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“My mother is a good woman - a very good woman - and I am, I think, not quite all criminality, but we do not pull together. I am a piece of machinery which, not understanding, my mother winds up the wrong way, setting all the wheels of my composition going in creaking discord.”

ThinkingWayTogetherMotherUnderstandingPiecesWindVery GoodSettingSettingsWheelsCompositionMachineryWrong WayDiscordGood WomanCriminality
Book:My Brilliant Career
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“The translator ... Peculiar outcast, ghost in the world of literature, recreating in another form something already created, creating and not creating, writing words that are his own and not his own, writing a work not original to him, composing with utmost pains and without recognition of his pains or the fact that the composition really is his own.”

WorldWritingFactsPainFormLiteratureCreatingOriginalsGhostRecognitionPeculiarCompositionComposingOutcastTranslatorsWriting Words
Author:Lydia Davis
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“How can one express the indefinable sensations that one experiences while writing an instrumental composition that has no definite subject? It is a purely lyrical process. It is a musical confession of the soul, which unburdens itself through sounds just as a lyric poet expresses himself through poetry...As the poet Heine said, 'Where words leave off, music begins.'”

WritingSaidSoulProcessSoundMusicSubjectsPoetMusic IsMusicalSensationsConfessionCompositionDefiniteLyricalIndefinable
Author:Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
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“No man reads a book of science from pure inclination. The books that we do read with pleasure are light compositions, which contain a quick succession of events.”

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Book:The life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D., comprehending an account of his studies, and numerous works, in chronological order: a series of his epistolary correspondence and conversations with many eminent persons; and various original pieces of his composition, never before published; the whole exhibiting a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half a century during which he flourished
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“The valuable library of Alexandria was pillaged or destroyed; and near twenty years afterwards, the appearance of the empty shelves excited the regret and indignation of every spectator whose mind was not totally darkened by religious prejudice. The compositions of ancient genius, so many of which have irretrievably perished, might surely have been excepted from the wreck of idolatry, for the amusement and instruction of succeeding ages.”

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Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume II: A.D. 395 to A.D. 1185 (A Modern Library E-Book)
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“This generation has altered the composition of the atmosphere on a global scale through radioactive materials and a steady increase in carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. Entire regional airsheds, crop plant environments, and river basins are heavy with noxious materials. Motor vehicles and home heating plants, municipal dumps and factories continually hurl pollutants into the air we breathe. Each day almost 50,000 tons of unpleasant, and sometimes poisonous, sulfur dioxide are added to the atmosphere, and our automobiles produce almost 300,000 tons of other pollutants.”

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Author:Lyndon B. Johnson
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“I couldn't portray a women in all her natural loveliness.. I haven't the skill. No one has. I must, therefore, create a new sort of beauty, the beauty that appears to me in terms of volume of line, of mass, of weight, and through that beauty interpret my subjective impression. Nature is mere a pretext for decorative composition, plus sentiment. It suggests emotion, and I translate that emotion into art. I want to express the absolute, not merely the factitious woman.”

WantArtTermNaturalLinesEmotionHavensSkillsMassWeightAbsolutesMereImpressionPlusSentimentsTranslateVolumeCompositionSubjectiveLovelinessPretext
Book:Georges Braque
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“I heard Joby Talbot's Hovercraft piece for orchestra and felt its immediate physical impact - visceral, unsettling, hungry and direct. These short five minutes became our keystone to unlocking a strangely seductive score that tensions the aggressive force of the White Stripes with the enigmatic beauty of Talbot's own compositions.”

ForceFeltWhiteFivePiecesHeardMinutesDirectImpactHungryTensionScoreAggressiveCompositionOrchestraFive MinutesSeductiveStripesVisceralKeystonesEnigmaticUnlockingWhite StripesHovercrafts
Author:Wayne McGregor
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“I don't think so much about verbal comedy. I always think about visual comedy. I was raised watching silents, and I'm always thinking about how to make cinema, not good talking - although I want good talking. I'm much more interested in framing, composition, and orchestration of bodies in space, and so forth. My goal is always what Chuck Jones wanted his Warner Brothers cartoons to be, which was if you turn down the sound, you could still tell what's going on. I think if you watch most of my films with the sound off, you could still tell what's going on.”

IfsThinkingWantStillsBodyWantedFilmTurnsSoundGoalSpaceTalkingWatchesComedyBrotherRaisedCinemaVisualsCompositionCartoonChuckAlways ThinkingFramingOrchestrationWarner Brothers
Author:Alexander Payne
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“Essentially, in photography, I think on two levels: one emotional and the other technical. The emotional impact has to do with looking for something dramatic happening in the photograph, something that reaches out and touches somebody in some way. And the technical is having to do with composition and framing - light and dark, light and shadow.”

ThinkingWayTwoLightDarkLevelsEmotionalPhotographyHappeningsShadowImpactPhotographDramaticReach OutCompositionLight And DarkFramingLight And Shadow
Author:Leonard Nimoy
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“A journalist is supposed to present an unbiased portrait of an event, a view devoid of intimate emotions. This is impossible, of course. The framing of an image, by its very composition, represents a choice. The photographer chooses what to show and what to exclude.”

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Book:Notes from the Trail: Presidential Politics from the Inside Out
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“I try when I'm writing to fill my head and my ears with all sorts of stuff and then let it settle and filter through. At a certain point it seems like fruitless activity because you're taking a lot of time and not seeming to get anything. And then, slowly, you realize you've actually digested elements and that your thinking is being freed up and the way you build up compositions is changed as a result of what you've been listening to.”

ThinkingWayWritingTryingSeemsCertainStuffRealizingResultsChangedListeningActivityElementsEarsSettlingCompositionSeemingFiltersBeing Free
Author:Peter Gabriel
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