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Subtext Quotes

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IfsWayThinkingWriting

Subtext Quotes

“I really don't like art with a message, unless the message is crystal clear. If you have a message that really needs to be said, just fuckin' say it! Don't hide it in indecipherable lyrics... a sculpture, it's a play, the subtext... just fuckin' say it, 'cause the people who need to hear messages are dumb as shit--the masses of humanity are dumb as shit, and you're really just pandering to your friends. Say what the fuck you mean, just say it! Title the song 'eat more leafy greens'. 'Give a hoot, don't pollute' is as much message and art combined, 'cause I get that, it's a poem but I'm pretty sure you're saying 'don't pollute'. But if you have something... 'ooh, I have the cure for cancer...and I've hidden it in this Rubix cube!!' -- just fuckin' say it! - Before Turning the Gun on Himself [2012]”

ArtMessagesPoemsLyricsSubtextObscurantism
Author:Doug Stanhope
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“At any given moment, everyone walks around with a laundry machine of vocabulary. Words spin and cycle in heads after fresh loads of new people, new ideas, and new encounters. This laundry machine of vocabulary hints at what we’re interested in, learning of, struggling with, and thinking about. It changes every few months. If you stick with a person long enough, while they may not confess to you that their family is dying, you wonder why they always come back to words like, “polka-dots,” “temperature” or phrases like “getting old” or “good morning, doc!”

GriefVulnerabilityPrivacySecretsVocabularyMissing SomeoneThe Goodbye SongConversationsSubtextMissing A Loved One
Book:The Goodbye Song
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“Neither of us was quite sure what the other meant, but, as in dreams, our words could be taken in so many ways, which was fine too, because we liked thinking they had more than one meaning, one obvious, one not so obvious, one hinted at but so muddled that neither of us knew which to grasp, because each was so laced into the others that all three ultimately meant one and the same thing.”

MeaningUnspokenAndre AcimanSubtextEnigma VariationsMultiple Meanings
Book:Enigma Variations
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“It starts with the writing. We have to think of all these characters - we have to treat them all equally. We have to think of them as having an interior life and having motivations. When I'm drawing female characters, I'm looking for that. I'm looking for subtext. I'm looking for ways to make the reader relate to them in a way that goes beyond the pure aesthetic value. You know, just drawing an attractive woman really gets kind of boring after a while.”

ThinkingKnowsWayWritingKindBookCharacterMotivationValuesReaderPureFemaleTreatsBoringDrawingComicRelateAttractiveAestheticComic BookInteriorsFemale CharactersSubtextAttractive Woman
Author:Cliff Chiang
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“The brand is lying about something, or at least misrepresenting it. When I read a bottle of shampoo or moisturizer or other beauty product, I always perceive a dark subtext. The words haunt me. It comes across as humorous to the reader/audience, but in fact the words really do make me a little bit queasy. Nothing is as easy or natural as consumer brands want us to think - no problem is as resolvable. Your hair will fall out, eventually. Yet we do have these brands, and we line our shelves with them. There's an inherent irony.”

ThinkingWantLittlesFactsProblemLyingFallEasyBitsNaturalLinesDarkAudienceProductsHairReaderLittle BitHumorousBrandsConsumersPerceiveIronyBottlesInherentShelvesNo ProblemWant UShampooSubtextBeauty Products
Author:Aaron Belz
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“If writing is thinking and discovery and selection and order and meaning, it is also awe and reverence and mystery and magic....Authors arrive at text and subtext in thousands of ways, learning each time they begin anew how to recognize a valuable idea and how to reader the texture that accompanies, reveals or displays it to its best advantage.”

IfsThinkingWayWritingIdeasOrderMagicMysteryReaderDiscoveryAdvantageValuableAweReverenceDisplaySelectionTextureAccompanySubtext
Author:Toni Morrison
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“I started with wanting to think about witches, about strong women who have special powers - who are often misunderstood. Then I found some beautiful blue fabric, so I made Blue Witches. My creative process is always like that. Organic, text, theme, subtext, each day evolving and trying to make strong, beautiful clothes. It's that simple.”

ThinkingTryingMadeBeautifulFoundStrongProcessSimpleCreativeSpecialClothesBlueEvolveThemeEach DayWitchCreative ProcessFabricStrong WomenMisunderstoodSubtextBeautiful Clothes
Author:Rei Kawakubo
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“I love thinking about things subtextually and I actually - like for instance when I write, I actually, I'm not very analytical about it. I don't ever deal with the subtext because I just know it's there so I don't have to deal with it. I just keep it about the scenario. I keep it on the surface, on my concerns. And one of the fun things is is when I'm done with everything, like now, for instance.”

ThinkingKnowsWritingDoneFunDealsConcernSurfaceInstanceScenariosFun ThingsSubtext
Author:Quentin Tarantino
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“I've always been a character actor, although I'm not quite sure what that means. All my scripts are absolutely covered in notes, so any time I say anything - even 'pass the salt' - I have six subtexts, comments on what I really mean when I'm saying that. Maybe that's what gives the impression that I'm saying one thing and thinking something else.”

ThinkingGivingMeanCharacterActorsOne ThingSixNotesScriptsImpressionCoveredCommentSaltSay AnythingReally MeanCharacter ActorsSubtext
Author:Christopher Walken
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“Liberal, shmiberal. That should be a new word. Shmiberal: one who is assumed liberal, just because he's a professional whiner in the newspaper. If you'll read the subtext for many of those old strips, you'll find the heart of an old-fashioned Libertarian. And I'd be a Libertarian, if they weren't all a bunch of tax-dodging professional whiners.”

IfsShouldHeartPoliticsTaxesLibertarianNewspapersBunchOld FashionedNew WordsSubtextWhiners
Author:Berkeley Breathed
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“He'd only been gone two seconds, but the room got brighter when they were together, as if they were two elements that became brilliant in proximity. At Sam's clumsy efforts to carry the vacuum, Grace smiled a new smile that I thought only he ever got, and he shot her a withering look full of the sort of subtext you could only get from a lot of conversations whispered after dark. It made me think of Isabel, back at her house. We didn't have what Sam and Grace had. We weren't even close to having it. I didn't think what we had could get to this, even if you gave it a thousand years.”

IfsThinkingYearsLooksMadeTwoTogetherHouseDarkRoomsEffortGoneGraceThousandConversationElementsShotsBrilliantSecondsThousand YearsBrighterVacuumsClumsyProximityWitheringSubtextGrace Brisbane
Book:Shiver Series (Shiver, Linger, Forever, Sinner)
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“I moved to leave, and Dylan actually grabbed my shoulders. I was so surprised that i forgot to karate-chop his elbows and break his arms.' “I don’t want anything to happen to you,” he said urgently. “What you want does not matter here,” I said slowly and carefully. I hoped Dylan was sensitive enough to read between the lines, to the subtext of: Let go of me or I’ll kill you.”

WantDoeSaidMatterEnoughHappensLinesBreakArmsLetting GoMovedWhat You WantShouldersSensitiveDylanElbowsKarateBetween The LinesSubtextRead Between The Lines
Author:James Patterson
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