Best Subject Matter Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Ideas, of course, have a place in fiction, and any writer of fiction needs a mind. But ideas are not the best subject matter for fiction. They do not dramatize well. They are, rather, a by-product, something the reader himself is led to formulate after watching the story unfold. The ideas, the generalizations, ought to be implicit in the selection and arrangement of the people and places and actions. They ought to haunt a piece of fiction as a ghost flits past an attic window after dark.”

Writing Ideas Creative Process Subject Matter Generalizations

Book:On Teaching and Writing Fiction

Source: On Teaching and Writing Fiction

“I like dark subject matter. I'm not sure what that means about me!”

Mean Matter Dark Subjects Not Sure Subject Matter

Author:Tea Obreht

“When I hit a block, regardless of what I am writing, what the subject matter is, or what's going on in the plot, I go back and I read Pablo Neruda's poetry. I don't actually speak Spanish, so I read it translation. But I always go back to Neruda. I don't know why, but it calms me, calms my brain.”

Knows Writing Matter Speak Brain Subjects Calm Block Plot Translations Subject Matter

Author:Tea Obreht

“I think the American Western laid down a kind of subject matter that's about following your instinct or following your gut and having a sort of removed quality from your humanity. And I think Clint Eastwood helped to establish that.”

Thinking Kind Matter Humanity Quality Subjects Instinct Western Following Guts Subject Matter

Author:Anson Mount

“The kind of stuff I usually read is a bit more on the literary side, like books that I think are influential in the sense that they're doing pulpy subject matter in a refined way. Like 'The Road' by Cormac McCarthy, I loved that book.”

Thinking Way Kind Book Matter Stuff Bits Sides Subjects Influential Subject Matter Refined

Author:Isaac Marion

“The success of my comedy has been not being afraid to touch on subject matters or issues that everyone else is politically scared of.”

Has Beens Matter Issues Comedy Subjects Scared Subject Matter Being Afraid

Author:Bernie Mac

“I have had UFO experiences, and yet, at the same time, I can easily be convinced that none of it is true. It's hard to say whether or not you're a believer. I've been interested in that subject matter, like lots of people. Perhaps foolishly, I've allowed some of that stuff to creep into my music.”

People I Can Matter Hard Stuff Subjects Convinced Believer Creeps Ufo Subject Matter

Author:Black Francis

“I think if you're writing from the heart, very often, the subject matter will adjust as you age... but you try to write the best song you can possibly write. For us, we have the same basic elements that make up the America sound.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Trying Heart Matter Age America Song Sound Subjects Elements Subject Matter Writing From The Heart

Author:Gerry Beckley

“I think pop culture is the greatest subject matter out there - 'Other People's Lives,' as we wrote about on the last Duran Duran album. Most ideas for great songs come from real situations, something your friend said to you the night before, the girl that just left, or something traumatic in your life.”

People Thinking Said Ideas Real Matter Lasts Night Song Culture Girl Left Situation Subjects Albums Pops Pop Culture Subject Matter Duran Duran

Author:Nick Rhodes

“The kids in our classroom are infinitely more significant than the subject matter we teach.”

Matter Kids Education Teach Subjects Educational Significant Wrestling Classroom Subject Matter Great Education Great Educational Inspirational Education Inspirational Educational Free Education

Author:Meladee McCarty

“There is never a lack of subject matter; just absence of creativity.”

Art Matter Inspiring Creativity Subjects Absence Subject Matter

Book:Drawing in Color - Animals

Source: Drawing in Color - Animals

“All the old bogeys of 'dignified subject-matter,' of 'balanced compositions,' of 'correct drawing' were laid to rest. The artist was responsible to no one but his own sensibilities for what he painted and how he painted it.”

Matter Artist Responsibility Subjects Responsible Drawing Balanced Composition Sensibility Subject Matter

Author:Ernst Gombrich

“The subject matter... is not that collection of solid, static objects extended in space but the life that is lived in the scene that it composes.”

Matter Space Subjects Objects Scene Collections Subject Matter Static

Author:Wallace Stevens

“When a painter is working he is aware of the means which are available to him - these include his materials, the style he inherits, the conventions he must obey, his prescribed or freely chosen subject matter - as constituting both an opportunity and a restraint.”

Mean Matter Opportunity Challenges Subjects Style Materials Available Chosen Painter Conventions Restraint Subject Matter

Book:Sense of Sight

Source: Sense of Sight

“Critic asks: 'And what, sir, is the subject matter of that painting?' - 'The subject matter, my dear good fellow, is the light.”

Matter Light Asks Subjects Painting Fellows Critics Dear Subject Matter

Author:Claude Monet

“The idea of space is given to the artist to change if he can. The subject matter in the abstract is space.”

Ifs Ideas Matter Artist Given Space Subjects Abstract Subject Matter

Book:De Kooning: A Retrospective

Source: De Kooning: A Retrospective

“My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea, even switch me to different subject matter. So I start out with my mind as free from image as the silver film on which I am to record, and I hope as sensitive.”

Mind May Ideas Different Matter Eye Film My Own Records Subjects Cameras Sensitive Silver Subject Matter Different Subjects

Book:Edward Weston on photography

Source: Edward Weston on photography

“On the one hand it is said that the aim and object of music is to excite emotions, i.e., pleasurable emotions; on the other hand, the emotions are said to be the subject matter which musical works are intended to illustrate. Both propositions are alike in this, that one is as false as the other.”

Said Matter Hands Emotion Subjects Objects Music Is Aim Musical Propositions Subject Matter

Author:Eduard Hanslick

“Beauty and happiness and life are all the same and they are pervasive, unattached and abstract and they are our only concern. They are immeasurable, completely lacking in substance. They are perfect and sublime. This is the subject matter of art.”

Art Matter Perfect Subjects Concern Substance Abstract Lacking Sublime Subject Matter Life And Happiness

Book:Schriften

Source: Schriften

“I do think we know that a teacher who knows what he or she is doing, knows their subject matter, and knows how to impart knowledge to kids is a critical piece of closing the achievement gap.”

Thinking Knows Matter Kids Know How Teacher Pieces Subjects Achievement Critical Gaps Closing Subject Matter Impart Achievement Gap

Author:Margaret Spellings

“To decide to reach for this blue and not that one, to switch styles or subject matter, to move, in the middle of a sentence, in one direction or another, to commit to this book when that one is also calling, are the sorts of choices that artists must make if they are to function.”

Ifs Book Matter Moving Artist Choices Middle Subjects Style Calling Function Blue Sentences Commit Subject Matter One Direction

Book:Making Your Creative Mark: Nine Keys to Achieving Your Artistic Goals

Source: Making Your Creative Mark: Nine Keys to Achieving Your Artistic Goals

“I shut the front door upon Christ and Einstein, and at the back door hold out a welcoming hand to little frogs and periwinkles. I believe nothing of my own that I have ever written. I cannot accept that the products of minds are subject-matter for beliefs.”

Mind Believe Littles Matter Hands Belief I Believe Christ My Own Accepting Written Doors Subjects Fronts Products Welcome Frogs Subject Matter Front Doors Back Doors Periwinkle

Book:Lo!

Source: Lo!

“A mirror does not develop because an historical pageant passes in front of it. It only develops when it gets a fresh coat of quicksilver in other words, when it acquires new sensitiveness; and the novel's success lies in its own sensitiveness, not in the success of its subject matter.”

Doe Matter Lying Novel Subjects Fronts Mirrors Historical Acquire Coats Subject Matter Pageant

Book:Aspects Of the Novel

Source: Aspects Of the Novel

“Art is viable when it finds elements in the surrounding environment. Our ancestors drew their subject matter from the religious attitudes which weighed on their souls. We must now learn to draw inspiration from the tangible miracles around us.”

Art Soul Matter Inspiration Religious Attitude Environment Subjects Elements Draws Art Is Miracle Ancestor Tangible Subject Matter

Author:Umberto Boccioni

“The prerequisite of contrapuntal art, more conspicuous in the work of Bach than in that of any other composer, is an ability to conceive a priori of melodic identities which when transposed, inverted, made retrograde, or transformed rhythmically will yet exhibit, in conjunction with the original subject matter, some entirely new but completely harmonious profile.”

Art Made Matter Ability Subjects Identity Originals Composer Transformed Harmonious Exhibits Subject Matter Profile Prerequisites Conjunctions Inverted Retrograde

Author:Glenn Gould

“I write about what I want to write about, and so the film comes out as a very personal expression even if its subject matter is totally prefabricated.”

Ifs Want Writing Matter Film Subjects Expression Subject Matter Personal Expression

Author:Woody Allen

“The purpose of subject matter is to veil technique. The great artist uses the cloak of resemblance to hide the means.”

Mean Matter Use Purpose Artist Subjects Technique Veils Great Art Subject Matter Great Artist Cloaks Resemblance

Author:John French Sloan

“Subject matter does not determine a successful painting. It is the manner in which one personally envisions and interprets the subject that is the magical equation.”

Doe Matter Successful Subjects Painting Determine Interpretation Equations Subject Matter

Author:Robert Reynolds

“I think, 'How could anybody mock a good pop song?' It is timeless; it transcends barriers; it breaks down every single type of social barrier that you can possibly have. It can deal with the most difficult subjects, even if it abstracts the subject matter.”

Ifs Thinking Matter Song Social Difficult Deals Break Subjects Type Pops Barriers Timeless Breaking Down Subject Matter Mock Pop Song Difficult Subjects

Author:Mika

“Knowledge is humanistic in quality not because it is about human products in the past, but because of what it does in liberating human intelligence and human sympathy. Any subject matter which accomplishes this result is humane, and any subject matter which does not accomplish it is not even educational.”

Humans Doe Matter Past Results Quality Subjects Products Educational Accomplish Liberating Humane Subject Matter Human Intelligence Humanistic

Book:Democracy and Education: Top American Authors

Source: Democracy and Education: Top American Authors

“The subject matter covered in Carmina stays pretty basic: love, lust, the pleasures of drinking and the heightened moods evoked by springtime. These primitive and persistently relevant themes are nicely camouflaged by the Latin and old German texts, so the listener can actually feign ignorance while listening to virtually X-rated lyrics. (Veni Veni Venias! Come, come come now!)The music itself toggles between huge forces and a single voice, juxtaposing majesty and intimacy with ease.”

Matter Force Voice Pleasure Subjects Ignorance Huge Listening Drinking Mood Lust Intimacy Ease Theme Latin Covered Relevant Primitive Listeners Majesty Springtime Subject Matter Love Lust X Rated

Author:Carl Orff

“The word 'abstract' comes from the light tower of the philosophers. One of their spotlights that they have particularly focused on 'Art'. [Abstraction was] not so much what you could paint but rather what you could not paint. You could not paint a house or a tree or a mountain. It was then that subject matter came into existence as something you ought not have.”

Art Matter Light House Existence Tree Subjects Ought Mountain Paint Philosopher Abstract Towers Abstraction Subject Matter Spotlight

Author:Willem de Kooning

“Everything that makes diversity of kinds, of species, differences, properties... everything that consists in generation, decay, alteration and change is not an entity, but a condition and circumstance of entity and being, which is one, infinite, immobile, subject, matter, life, death, truth, lies, good and evil.”

Kind Matter Lying Evil Differences Generations Conditions Subjects Circumstances Diversity Infinite Property Species Good And Evil Decay Entity Subject Matter Life Death Alterations

Author:Giordano Bruno

“I was aware that you weren't supposed to write about suburbia, that it was undignified in some way, the subject matter not momentous enough. And so, for a long time, that kept me from writing about it. But once I began, I realized it was just as interesting as anywhere else.”

Way Writing Long Matter Enough Interesting Subjects Long Time I Realized Subject Matter Suburbia

Author:Jeffrey Eugenides

“I thought why not write a kind of mystery, murder, thriller book, but use romance language where the language plays completely against the very dark subject matter, that very strange murderous plot, but use that Harlequin Romance language.”

Writing Kind Book Matter Play Use Romance Language Dark Mystery Subjects Strange Murder Plot Why Not Subject Matter Thrillers Harlequin

Author:Chuck Palahniuk

“As for the subject matter in my painting.. ..it is very often an incidental thing in the background, elusive and unclear, that really stirred me.”

Matter Subjects Painting Backgrounds Subject Matter Elusive Unclear

Book:William Baziotes: A Retrospective Exhibition : an Exhibition

Source: William Baziotes: A Retrospective Exhibition : an Exhibition

“I don't think it's necessary for artists to have any formal training in painting or art history, but I do think it's essential to continually experiment with different subject matter, types of paint and methods of painting.”

Thinking Art Different Matter Artist Subjects Painting Type Essentials Training Method Paint Experiments Formal Subject Matter Art History Different Subjects

Author:Ron Parker

“I'm interested in the landscape of the face, the way in which light and shadow fall across the forms. That's really my subject matter.”

Way Matter Light Faces Form Fall Subjects Shadow Landscape Subject Matter Light And Shadow

Author:Paul Emsley

“Dramatic use of color, harmonious design, the interplay of light and shadow across a variety of textures, the portrayal of the figure and other subject matter that reflects the sophistication and beauty I find in nature - all presented from a unique point of view - can only be successfully achieved with a sound command of the painter's craft... history will determine how successful I have been.”

“No amount of virtuosic skill and choice of subject matter can be a substitute for depth and poetry.”

Matter Choices Subjects Amount Skills Excellence Depth Substitutes Subject Matter

Author:Scott Kahn

“A few of my books, over the years, have been optioned for film. The subject matter of my books, however, is not exactly conducive to Hollywood film treatment. If and when a 'big-budget' film is ever made based on one of my books, my fans and I will more than likely loathe it because it won't be true to its source. That's almost a given.”

Ifs Years Has Beens Made Book Matter Bigs Film Given Fans Subjects Source Hollywood Being True Budgets Treatment Subject Matter Loathe Ifs And Hollywood Films

Author:Richard Laymon

“The adjective "political" in "political philosophy" designates not so much the subject matter as a manner of treatment; from this point of view, I say, "political philosophy" means primarily not the philosophic study of politics, but the political, or popular, treatment of philosophy, or the political introduction to philosophy the attempt to lead qualified citizens, or rather their qualified sons, from the political life to the philosophic life.”

Mean Matter Philosophy Political Views Study Subjects Son Citizens Point Of View Treatment Qualified Introduction Political Philosophy Subject Matter Adjectives Political Life Philosophic

Author:Leo Strauss

“If you want to get an interesting perspective do not think of Hugh as a traditional 20th century physicist but more of a Renaissance man with interests and skills in many different areas. He was smart and lots of things interested him and he brought the same general conceptual methodology to solve them. The subject matter was not so important as the solution ideas.”

“The seriousness or otherwise of the subject matter is often irrelevent to the question of whether a book is any good. F Scott Fitzgerald wrote a great and beautiful novel which mainly involved shallow people going to parties in a rich guy's house. By contrast, all sorts of terrible books are published every month about men slaughtering people for no reason - a serious matter which, in itself, does not make the author worthy of serious consideration.”

“It's an eclectic film and I think we served the novel really well. And we had a great cast who worked for free. Everyone read it and said, I'm in, from Nick [Nolte] to Albert [Finney] to Omar [Epps] to Barbara [Hershey]. We really had fun and shot it in a very short time. I think the subject matter is more topical today, more to the point, than it was 30 years ago, when it concerned the Vietnam War.”

Thinking Years Wells Said War Matter Today Film Fun Novel Subjects Shots Concerned Years Ago Casts Vietnam Vietnam War Subject Matter Short Time Eclectic Barbara Had Fun Omar Hershey

Author:Bruce Willis

“The peculiarity of all death-based religions is that their subject-matter is entirely outside of facts. Men could think and think, talk and argue, advance, deny, assert, and controversy, and write innumerable books, without being hampered at any time by any fact.”

Thinking Men Writing Book Matter Facts Atheism Subjects Deny Arguing Controversy Subject Matter

Author:Charlotte Perkins Gilman

“I'm just naturally gravitating towards different things. As you mature, different subject matters. And as you're older, you can't play as many parts, or you shouldn't be playing the parts that you used to play. But also there's the opportunity to play parts that you couldn't have.”

Different Matter Play Used Opportunity Subjects Different Things Mature Subject Matter Different Subjects

Author:Clint Eastwood

“The strength of film is its accessibility and immediacy. But the strength of books is that freedom to really depict anything you want because people are going to be reading it in private. So, I'm always trying to write with the immediacy and the constant motion of film but I'm also trying to write with the complete freedom of subject matter that books have.”

People Want Writing Trying Book Matter Film Reading Subjects Constant Always Trying Subject Matter Accessibility Immediacy Complete Freedom

Author:Chuck Palahniuk

“There's so much more freedom in film as far as subject matter and what can be said. And then, also, the process is different because there's more time. On movies there's just so much freedom and space to explore in front of the camera.”

Said Different Matter Film Process Space Subjects Fronts Cameras More Time Subject Matter

Author:Dave Franco

“I think that metaphor really is a key to explaining thought and language. The human mind comes equipped with an ability to penetrate the cladding of sensory appearance and discern the abstract construction underneath - not always on demand, and not infallibly, but often enough and insightfully enough to shape the human condition. Our powers of analogy allow us to apply ancient neural structures to newfound subject matter, to discover hidden laws and systems in nature, and not least, to amplify the expressive power of language itself.”

Source: The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature

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