“Much like photographs, I also love the idea that ghosts are memories frozen in time. We can be haunted by both just as horrifically. One really becomes a metaphor for the other.” IdeasMemoriesPhotographMetaphorGhostFrozenFrozen In Time Author:Ed Gass-Donnelly
“If you think about Don Quixote, Don Quixote is this guy who wants to live as if he was in a medieval chivalric romance, when actually he lives in sixteenth-century Spain, which is already going through secularization, industrialization, modernization. He goes out to kill a giant, and instead he collides with this huge windmill and injures himself and also damages the windmill. I think that's a metaphor for the collisions we all have over time, as our ideas of ourselves get out of synch with the historical moment.” IfsThinkingWantIdeasMomentsRomanceGuyCenturyHugeHistoricalMetaphorGiantsDamageSpainThis GuyMedievalCollisionCollideIndustrializationWindmillsModernization Author:Elif Batuman
“I use a lot of similes and metaphors when I work, simply because it's my best way of describing a building or a scene. I'm terrible at describing landscapes - trees, buildings. The inanimate things don't interest me: I always think, "Oh, no, here comes another building I have to describe." So I usually use a simile or metaphor.” ThinkingWayUseInterestTreeBuildingTerribleSceneMetaphorBest WayLandscapeSimileDescribing Author:Robert Cormier
“I write every day, for most of the day, so it's just about turning into metaphor whatever's going on in my life, in the world, and in my head. Every nightmare, every moment of grief or joy or failure, is a moment I can convert into cash via words. I use everything. Turning life into stories is how I make sense of my experience.” WorldWritingI CanMomentsStoriesUseJoyGriefMetaphorMake SenseNightmareCash Author:Grant Morrison
“The American dream is a multi-metaphor made up of distinct regions. Many regions of this country are almost like different countries. Even in one state, northern and southern California are like two separate countries.” MadeTwoDifferentCountryStatesDreamMetaphorCaliforniaRegionsSouthernAmerican DreamDifferent CountriesSouthern California Author:Joyce Carol Oates
“Spiritual truth is something that is so far from us - without any form or name that we can imagine - that we need the things that religions gave us simply as images and metaphors. But they can be found in a variety of ways. It's not a question of religious practice.” WayNeedsSpiritualFormFoundNamesReligiousPracticeImagineTruth IsMetaphorVarietyImagine ThatSpiritual TruthReligious Practices Author:Eugene Green
“We know that we need to explore desire in fiction - many say that the only way a story exists is that a character feels a strong desire - and nature is the place where creatures act on their desires in the most pure way imaginable, so maybe nature also works as a metaphor for whatever emotional troubles my characters have to negotiate. I'm interested in my characters as survivors, and maybe that works best when the old-fashioned notion of humans surviving in wilderness is not too far away.” CharacterDesireStrongTroubleEmotionalMetaphorWildernessSurvivorFar AwaySurviving Author:Bonnie Jo Campbell
“I made a note in my head to be aware of things as they were happening, because they might not happen again. Up to that point, I was not really that appreciative of what was going on, or thinking about documenting life in a plainspoken manner. I was talking about my life and writing songs, but then I would go back and listen and they were about dreams, and legends, and metaphors and that was just not my life!” ThinkingWritingDreamSongMetaphorAppreciative Author:James Vincent McMorrow
“As a child I always loved traditional Korean masked dances. There is something magical about a mask because we all wear or hide behind a metaphoric mask, and ultimately underneath this metaphor is our true vulnerable core. I think we all want to reveal ourselves but can only do so when we feel we are safe.” ThinkingChildrenMetaphorVulnerableMaskKorean Author:Dana Tai Soon Burgess
“Fire is a symbol for so much. It's a symbol for change. It's a symbol for destruction. Out of the ashes of that comes an opportunity to start over. It's one of the greatest metaphors in nature that you can possibly lean on, especially as a songwriter. You're trying to describe either something coming to a complete and utter end or something that is in flux, or something that's on the verge of becoming something else.” TryingOpportunityDestructionMetaphorOver ItStarting Over Author:Sam Roberts
“'Triboluminescence' is actually a scientific world meaning striking something and creating light from dark. I thought it was a great word and that is was a very apt metaphor for making music - or any creative act, really. We all start in the dark and have to create light.” WorldDarkCreativeMetaphor Author:Andy Summers
“To use a basketball metaphor, West Wing cast was a group that liked to pass as much as they liked to shoot.” BasketballMetaphor Author:Aaron Sorkin
“I was afraid that something would happen to me. But at the same time I was lucky, because some writers were tortured and jailed. I always used metaphors that could be interpreted in more than one way. Maybe this style protected me.” StyleLuckyMetaphor Author:Osama Alomar
“Don't assume a parable narrates something that actually happened. Recognize that apocalyptic is filled with symbols. Expect a lot of metaphors in poetry. Don't treat a proverb as an exception-less absolute.” AssumingMetaphorApocalyptic Author:Craig Blomberg
“It seems to me that metaphors come down to a certain idea of interconnectedness - that everything relates to everything else. Metaphors don't believe in autonomy. And in the end, perhaps that idea of interconnectedness is a moral position.” BelieveMoralMetaphorAutonomyInterconnectedness Author:Nick Laird
“I remember periods where we didn't even have beats in our club sets, but people kept dancing. The beat wasn't even necessary, because it was a biokinetic experience - that's our metaphor for the dance and the body and all its expressions. From today's point of view, this would be totally impossible.” PeopleRememberImpossibleDancingMetaphorPoint Of View Author:Thomas Koner
“I don't want to make a film that offends people, but the whole world is so politically correct - I'm not going to not do something because it may be politically incorrect. At some point, the metaphors and allegories break down. They disappear, and you just have science fiction.” PeopleWorldFilmBreakScience FictionMetaphorDisappearBreaking DownPolitically CorrectAllegory Author:Neill Blomkamp
“I hate to use this as a metaphor, but making movies is kind of like going to war. It's not - but the stamina required and what it takes to tell a story that is this big in scope, you need a general that will bring out the best in you.” KindWarHateI HateMetaphorStaminaGoing To War Author:Walton Goggins
“Yale's endowment became a metaphor for the kind of training it offered its graduates, namely, how to exploit the global marketplace, and technology, for your own interests, while maintaining a smokescreen of virtuous intent.” KindInterestTechnologyTrainingMetaphorGraduatesVirtuousEndowment Author:Jess Row
“I found very early on when I became a hip-hop artist that I loved telling stories. Actually, when I was trying to get a message across it was more powerful when I told a story, rather than if I used a metaphor or if I preached about an issue. And through doing that I realised that actually these stories were very visual in my head and I couldn't wait to make the videos.” TryingArtistWaitingPowerfulMetaphor Author:Ben Drew
“The 20th century saw far greater catastrophes than September 11th, as bad as it was, and they didn't render literature or art or music irrelevant. In fact, I think that literature and art help us to understand - sometimes they provide narratives and metaphors for understanding history, for understanding recent catastrophes.” ThinkingArtSometimesHelpingLiteratureUnderstandingMetaphorSeptemberCatastropheIrrelevant20th CenturySeptember 11September 11th Author:Jay McInerney
“I guess, is we are not saying, "Look, William Shakespeare's written a critique of modern Africa." What we're saying is that we've shifted the metaphor to make it more immediate.” ModernMetaphorCritique Author:Gregory Doran
“I do keep up at night. I try not to let my mind go to extremes in the middle of the night because it would be better to turn all that stuff into dreams; it would be better if I was sleeping, because dreams become good metaphors for what's really going on inside of you.” TryingMindDreamNightSleepMetaphor Author:David Small
“I do believe that our ability to jam the Trump brand is somewhat limited. I think we can chip away at it, but ultimately the way to undermine the Trump brand is a better product in the political marketplace, if you'll forgive the capitalist metaphor. I do think that the negative messaging on Trump is severely limited because he is tapping into a very deep, and in many a rightful, desire for deep change, and a feeling that the whole system is so broken and so corrupt that you might as well raise a middle finger as some kind of act of agency.” ThinkingBelieveKindFeelingsPoliticalDesireAbilityBrokenNegativeForgivingMetaphorCapitalistVery DeepMiddle Finger Author:Naomi Klein
“I think there are shades of political songs; some are more subtle and can be more effective for being subtle, for being more metaphorical. I've written a lot of songs like that, where it's not really clear if it's a war song or a relationship song. The metaphor can be the most powerful thing of all, but sometimes you have to speak more clearly to more people, and I think this is one of those times.” PeopleThinkingWarSometimesPoliticalSongSpeakPowerfulMetaphorMost PowerfulMetaphorical Author:Richard Thompson
“The metaphor I routinely use is polar bears in the Sahara desert. You take creatures adapted to the cold and put them in the heat, the very traits that allow them to survive in one environment will conspire against them in the other. We are polar bears in the Sahara with one important distinction: we are smarter than the average bear. Once we identify the nature of the problem, we can think our way out of it. But it begins by acknowledging you didn't fail because you couldn't succeed. Because you didn't even know what the scope of the problem was. It's not your fault.” ThinkingImportantProblemEnvironmentFailingColdSucceedMetaphorTraits Author:David Katz
“There are moments on songs like "Violet" where it's still shrouded in metaphor, but it's quite, I don't know, explicit. And then there are songs like "Boyfriend," where obviously it's straight up, very, very simple. It's fun to play around with words; I really enjoy doing that, so I don't think I'll ever stop, but it's also been nice to have messages on there that I can say flat out and that people appreciate.” PeopleThinkingMomentsSongFunEnjoySimpleNiceAppreciateMetaphorExplicitStraight Up Author:Marika Hackman
“I like the idea of watching the sun go down in the ocean. I've always felt comfortable about that, I like sunsets. There's something about a westward movement that seems fascinating, although the Irish refer to going West as a metaphor for dying. I see it differently.” DyingOceanMetaphorSunset Author:Michael C. McMillen
“We're living history all the time, in the papers, in the news, you think about stuff and it goes into your brain and you think about it and it comes out somehow. You have an idea; you've heard a phrase, or you're angry, or something disturbs you, or something seems paradoxical to you, you explore that idea, much like a writer would explore maybe an idea through metaphor. Maybe artists use their vehicle to explore ideas, so I think the things that interest me are the kind of idea of continuous change and how nothing stays the same and it's always disintegrating into something more.” ThinkingKindArtistInterestBrainMetaphorVehicleParadoxical Author:Michael C. McMillen
“The idea of getting old and dying, falling apart, does not sound fun at all to me, but it's an observation that I'm sure I'm not the first one to express. There're thousands of year of history attest to the same thing. Maybe it's the way I'm personally dealing with that inevitable transition. So I'm making metaphors out of the work possibly to think about that and try to get comfortable with the idea.” ThinkingTryingFallFunDyingMetaphorObservationInevitableFalling ApartGetting Old Author:Michael C. McMillen
“What's interesting to me is that in terms of people who I feel are getting what my game is about - and here I'm not even talking about what the elements of the story mean, like, whatever symbolism and metaphors and things are in there. But even the structure of the game, like, there's a fundamental structure and reasons in the way things are laid out, and parts of the game that are meant to draw people's attention to certain things, regardless of what's contained in that structure. And what's interesting to me is that some people get that, and some people don't.” PeopleMeanReasonTermInterestingAttentionMetaphor Author:Jonathan Blow
“I never try and force-feed any song idea or lyrical message. It's really what's on my mind and what comes out of me. And a lot of these lyrics are metaphors for specific life situations that I've been through, and in most cases, the struggles. Something about human beings wearing sadness heavily on their sleeve inspires me to make something uplifting about the situation.” TryingMindSongSituationStruggleSadnessInspireMetaphorUpliftingLyrical Author:Aaron Bruno
“I'm bored with DJs. Anybody that puts the title DJ in front of their name immediately turns me off. I prefer the term "sampling," because it has both the dilettante side, like someone tasting wine or caviar, but also functions as a kind of litmus paper dipped into culture. And the whole semi-legality of sampling is very interesting as well. So a DJ is not really creative enough for me to be an appropriate metaphor.” KindEnoughCultureTermInterestingCreativeWineMetaphorBoredVery Interesting Author:Momus
“Shoes are money well spent and a good metaphor for life: everything else in life may be awful but a shoe will cheer me up, lift my body and take an outfit up five levels. Plus, shoes are easy to carry and fun to collect.” FunEasyMetaphorCheer Author:Sarah Lewis
“The point of view foreigners will have of the film The Conquest isn't the same as the French public. What will interest American and international audiences is the love story between Nicolas and Cecelia that's a metaphor of today's occidental couple, namely the women in the shadows who carry their husbands into the spotlight, but the man is so absorbed with work so the woman leaves him for another man.” MenFilmInterestAudienceHe ManCoupleHusbandShadowMetaphorPoint Of ViewLove StoryConquest Author:Xavier Durringer
“Not only did this new pornography industry change the way men look at women and how we relate to sex, how we sell stuff, and not only did it change America's cultural landscape - it's also this incredible metaphor for a market-based economy. The great pyramid scheme that America has become. I felt like in were larger themes in terms of culture and economics that could be addressed.” MenCultureTermEconomyIncrediblesMetaphorPornography Author:David Simon
“I like to make people dream and think and imagine and learn and study. Nowadays, music is so literal - it's telling you, "This is how it is," and my music's the opposite. I come from an era where lyrics were full of imagery and metaphor, and that's all I know.” PeopleThinkingDreamStudyImagineMusic IsMetaphorImagery Author:Dawn Angelique
“All the interesting films are now being made by their subsidiaries for very low budgets. But the studios are not making money. They're making these big, very expensive pictures that take a lot of money but don't really pay for their costs. So they're having a very difficult time. I can see the system breaking down. I think the American studios are a reflection or a metaphor for American industry altogether, which is failing in the world. Its economic domination is being broken down and I think the same thing is happening to the studios.” ThinkingWorldFilmDifficultInterestingFailingEconomicBrokenReflectionMetaphorMaking MoneyBreaking DownDominationDifficult Times Author:John Boorman
“I feel like I've always had two selves - the part of me that makes films and the part of me that's political, and they haven't really connected that much. Alias Grace talks about things like class and immigration and women's rights, which felt really good. But especially now, there are pressing things to be said. It's a really scary time in the world. It's a very scary thing to have an American president who openly brags about assaulting women and is openly racist. This isn't a moment to be speaking in metaphors.” WorldMomentsFilmPoliticalPresidentGraceMetaphorScaryImmigrationRacistBragAmerican PresidentReally Scary Author:Sarah Polley
“I am the stereo-typical classic lapsed Catholic. Religious themes crop up in my songs sometimes as metaphors and other kinds of touchstones for getting at issues and "deeper issues," and all that. Right now, honestly, I think all religion is proving itself to be a NET negative on the human race. I recognize its valuable place in individual lives and many larger communities - I know the good that is done in its various names all over the world, but I don't believe in it anymore, and I see the negative aspects dragging us down at a much faster rate than the positive ones are bouying us up.” ThinkingWorldBelieveKindSometimesDoneSongIndividualCommunityReligiousProveNegativeCatholicRateMetaphorVariousValuableHonestlyClassic Author:Ted Leo
“Of course, I could never suggest that only poor people are misogynistic; too many rich folk are just as hateful of women as any poor person might be. I don't know if social problems are only circular; perhaps other geometric metaphors might better describe the triangular effects of social vulnerability, political oppression, and racial disadvantage. I think you're right - we've got to focus on both analyses and solutions. And sometimes, an adequate analysis goes far along in suggesting a suitable solution.” PeopleThinkingSometimesProblemPoliticalPoorRichFocusSolutionsMetaphorOppressionVulnerabilityPoor PeopleHatefulGeometric Author:Michael Eric Dyson
“I've always felt that the writing I responded to most - the novels and stories that compelled me, that felt like they described the world I live in, with all of its subjectivity, irrationality, and paradox, were those which made free use of myths and symbols, fantastic occurences, florid metaphors, linguistic experiments, etcetera - to depict the experiences of relatively 'realistic' characters - on the level of their emotions and psychology, rather than in terms of what kinds of lives they led or what kind of events they experience.” WorldWritingKindCharacterTermEmotionNovelPsychologyMetaphorMythFantasticParadoxIrrationality Author:Jonathan Lethem
“There is no metaphor for death. All comparisons are odious, but I'll do one anyway. We all have these moments of harsh clarity where we realize that something is gone, whether that is youth, whether that is someone we care about, whether that is where we literally lose someone we care about to death. Or we end a relationship that we thought would last forever, or have one ended for us. We all have these moments in life where it seems impossible to fill up the time that we have left for us, and yet we have to do it somehow.” MomentsCareRealizingForeverImpossibleYouthMetaphorClarityComparisonHarsh Author:John Hodgman
“I favor a form of cosmopolitanism that takes nations very seriously, particularly because of the role of national law in sustaining or, unfortunately, undermining human rights. Some cosmopolitans take the metaphor of global citizenship - the etymology of the word, after all, just comes from a Greek phrase meaning citizen of the world - to rule out taking national citizenship seriously. I think that's a big mistake. Why can't I be loyal to America and to humanity? After all, I can be loyal to America and to New York city!” ThinkingWorldHumanityMistakeHuman RightsMetaphorGreekLoyalCitizenshipBig Mistake Author:Kwame Anthony Appiah
“I think that as poets, we can get away with stuff because we can ride on the melt of metaphor. We cover a lot of terrain psychically and temporally and linguistically via metaphor, and that can be a stand-in for an argument, whereas in prose, you have to make the argument, and you have to be convincing because the sequence must make sense in time and purpose.” ThinkingPurposePoetArgumentMetaphorMake SenseProseGet AwayConvincing Author:David Biespiel
“I'm not going to tell people how to write, but we do have a skill set, and the more we put ourselves out into the world as poets, as a sort of poet of the tribe, as representatives of metaphor, and try to claim space for metaphor in the inner life, that's going to be important and be helpful to poetry and bring a tension for poets writing about whatever they choose.” PeopleWorldWritingTryingImportantPoetMetaphorTensionHelpful Author:David Biespiel
“I find myself using music metaphors all the time, but this is too perfect, I feel like. Digital downloading is like photographs online. It's great, they're available, you can see lots of different work, but it's a limited experience of the form. A book is like an album. You don't have to have a million dollars to be able to buy it, you have to save some money, you have to buy your album, then you take it home, and you put it on your turntable.” BookDifferentHomePerfectPhotographMetaphorOnline Author:Alec Soth
“When you look at the damage that many of the policies that Donald Trump has proposed can do to our citizens of the US - you can compare him to Major Storms Harvey, Irma, Maria. We're talking about life or death issues and about repealing the Affordable Care Act. There are lives at stake. Something that would affect millions and millions of people. I think it's totally appropriate. Obviously, it's a metaphor. It's not to be taken literally. But I mean that when I talk about the damage and the trauma that has been brought into our lives because of his presidency, that that's very real.” PeopleThinkingMeanRealCareTakenPolicyMetaphorTraumaStormCompareAffordableLife Or Death Author:Chirlane McCray
“We approach nonfiction at a much different level than we approach fiction or poetry or drama: that there's almost no room for metaphor. We expect the "I" in any nonfiction text to be an autobiographical "I" when there is a history in the essay of the "I" being a persona.” DifferentDramaMetaphorEssaysPersona Author:John D'Agata
“I do like Canadian poetry. Christian Bök, Anne Carson, Carmine Starnino, and Don McKay are a few of the Canadian poets whose work has been important to me. But I'm not sure that I do see poetry as a world apart. Some of my metaphors are based in the fantastic, but I try to be true to life as I understand it. That understanding is affected by my Canadianness, my Americanness, my whiteness, my gender, my age, my education, my experience...everything about me affects my view of reality. But I try to wrestle against those partialities, not embrace them.” WorldTryingImportantRealityAgeChristianUnderstandingPoetEmbraceMetaphorGenderBeing TrueFantasticNot SureTrue LifePartiality Author:James Arthur