“There is a popular superstition that "realism" asserts itself in the cataloguing of a great number of material objects, in explaining mechanical processes, the methods of operating manufactories and trades, and in minutely and unsparingly describing physical sensations. But is not realism, more than it is anything else, an attitude of mind on the part of the writer toward his material, a vague indication of the sympathy and candour with which he accepts, rather than chooses, his theme?” MindProcessNumbersAttitudeAcceptingObjectsMaterialsMethodTradeThemeSensationsSuperstitionsRealismVagueExplainingDescribingIndicationCandour Book:Not Under Forty Source: Not Under Forty
“The laws of thought are natural laws with which we have no power to interfere, and which are of course not to be in any way confused with the artificial laws of a country, which are invented by men and can be altered by them. Every science is occupied in detecting and describing the natural laws which are inflexibly observed by the objects treated in the Science.” MenWayCountryLawCoursesNaturalObjectsTreatedConfusedArtificialInterfereDescribingAlteredNatural Law Book:Elementary lessons in logic Source: Elementary lessons in logic
“I strenuously object to the very word "grotesque" which has become hackneyed to the point of nausea...I would prefer my music to be described as "Scherzo-ish" in quality, or else by three words describing the various degrees of the Scherzo - whimsicality, laughter, mockery.” ThreeQualityObjectsDegreesLaughterVariousDescribingMockeryGrotesqueThree WordsNausea Author:Sergei Prokofiev
“All photographs are about light. The great majority of photographs record light as a way of describing objects in space. A few photographs are less about objects and more about the space that contains them. Still fewer photographs are about light itself.” WayStillsLightSpaceRecordsObjectsMajorityPhotographerPhotographFewerDescribing Author:John Paul Caponigro
“"Real" drawing is about specifics. It's about describing an object as accurately as possible. In a comic strip you have to draw a picture of the idea of the object. You have to draw the word that you are picturing, then you have to mix in specifics with it for it to work as a story. But you are still working with drawn words.” StillsIdeasRealStoriesObjectsDrawsDrawingComicDescribingComic StripsSpecifics Author:Chris Ware
“But in general, for the purposes of most novelists, the number of objects genuinely necessary for. . .describing a scene will be found to be very small.” PurposeFoundNumbersObjectsSceneNovelistsDescribing Author:Elizabeth Bowen
“Simplicity is not the absence of clutter, that's a consequence of simplicity. Simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and product. The absence of clutter is just a clutter-free product. That's not simple.” PurposeSimpleObjectsProductsConsequencePhilosophicalSimplicityAbsenceDescribingClutterSimplicity In DesignProduct Design Author:Jonathan Ive