Quotessence
Home / Topics / Theme Quotes

Theme Quotes

Browse 1175 quotes about Theme.

Related topics

ThinkingIfsPeopleWritingStoriesWaySongWantFilmKnowsBookWorldIdeasCharacterTryingMenFirstsHas BeensDifferentFeelsHumansLooksNeedsBigsKindNovelYearsArtMindWellsWholeDoeParksSubjectsTheme ParksVariationGivingMeanCertainSeemsMomentsRunningUniversalUseShowsTwoWantedEndsLittlesMayParticularFictionImportantInterestingLongPersonsShouldAlbumsEnoughHeartPlayRealSometimesTogetherWould BeAbleCommonMadePoliticalStillsAsksHappensI CanMightPlotRecordsSimpleBelieveFactsFormGenreMajorsAgeChildrenDealsLevelsLiteraturePiecesProcessSchoolSoundWarArtistAudienceConceptsFeelingsInterestOrderRecurringStuffmore

Theme Quotes

“Even one word, or certainly one sentence, should be able to describe the basic characteristic that the scene has, or the character has, or the story has. And then you begin to detail that one spine, and you have offshoots from that spine, and it becomes more and more complex, but all of it stems from that one-word, one-line theme, which can give the character, the scene, or the play its uniqueness.”

GivingShouldPlayCharacterStoriesAbleLinesSceneComplexesDetailsSentencesCharacteristicsThemeUniquenessStemOne WordSpineOne LineOne Sentence
Author:William Shatner
Create image

“I'm pretty much fixated on certain themes. Family, but it's family of choice as much as family of blood. Individuality, yes, but not at the cost of others' happiness. Be true to your friends. Remembering to find some wonder and hope in the world. Basically it boils down to: treat people like you'd like them to treat you, leave the world a little better than it was when you got here, respect others and stand up for those who can't stand up for themselves.”

PeopleWorldLittlesRememberCertainChoicesWonderBloodLike YouCostTreatsIndividualityBeing TrueThemeRespecting OthersOthers Happiness
Author:Charles de Lint
Create image

“The theme of Cosmology, which is the basis of all religions, is the story of the dynamic effort of the World passing into everlasting unity, and of the static majesty of God's vision, accomplishing its purpose of completion by absorption of the World's multiplicity of effort.”

WorldStoriesPurposeEffortVisionBasesUnityPassingPassingsThemeEverlastingMajestyStaticCosmologyCompletionMultiplicityAbsorption
Book:Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology; Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927-28
Create image

“Siphonophores do not convey the message a favorite theme of unthinking romanticism that nature is but one gigantic whole, all its parts intimately connected and interacting in some higher, ineffable harmony. Nature revels in boundaries and distinctions; we inhabit a universe of structure. But since our universe of structure has evolved historically, it must present us with fuzzy boundaries, where one kind of thing grades into another.”

KindWholeUniverseHigherMessagesHarmonyStructureConnectedBoundariesThemeDistinctionGradesRomanticismInteractingIneffableFuzzy
Book:The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History
Create image

“I usually give a book 40 pages. If it doesn't grab me by then, adios. With young adult books, you can usually tell by Page 4 if it's worth the time. The author establishes the conflict early, sometimes in the first sentence. The themes of hope, family, friendship and overcoming hardship appeal to most everyone.”

IfsGivingFirstsBookSometimesYoungConflictPagesAdultsOvercomingYoung AdultSentencesAppealsThemeHardshipFamily FriendsOvercoming Hardship
Author:Regina Brett
Create image

“The elegant study... is consistent with the themes of modern cognitive neuroscience . Every aspect of thought and emotion is rooted in brain structure and function, including many psychological disorders and, presumably, genius. The study confirms that the brain is a modular system comprising multiple intelligences, mostly nonverbal.”

EmotionBrainStudyModernGeniusAspectFunctionStructureIncludingPsychologicalThemeConsistentDisorderRootedMultipleNeuroscienceElegantCognitiveThoughts And EmotionsNonverbalMultiple IntelligencesStructure And FunctionPsychological Disorders
Author:Steven Pinker
Create image

“What is noble, lyrical, tender in the upper level shown is also with the servants, scoundrels, and scamps, as in a distorting mirror. This contrast seems to me a most appealing musical theme--to show love in its noble and crude forms, romanticism and crass realism mixed as in everyday life.”

ShowsSeemsFormLevelsMirrorsEverydayMusicalNobleServantThemeContrastRealismEveryday LifeRomanticismCrudeLyricalScoundrelsCrass
Book:A Confidential Matter: The Letters of Richard Strauss and Stefan Zweig, 1931-1935
Create image

“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
Create image

“One of the many, many things I hate about war is how it trivializes the personal. The big themes, the broad sweep, the emergency measures, the national identity, all the things that a particular kind of man with a particular kind of power urge adores, these are the things that become important. War gives the lie to the personal, drowns it in meetings, alarms, sacrifices. The personal is only allowed to return as death.”

MenGivingKindImportantWarBigsLyingHateSacrificeIdentityParticularHe ManReturnI HateMeetingsThemeUrgesBroadsAdoreEmergenciesAlarmsNational IdentityThings I Hate
Author:Jeanette Winterson
Create image

“Few, as I have said, are the humorists who can induce this state. To master and dissolve us, to give us the joy of being worn down and tired out with laughter, is a success to be won by no man save in virtue of a rare staying-power. Laughter becomes extreme only if it be consecutive. There must be no pauses for recovery. Touch-and-go humour, however happy, is not enough. The jester must be able to grapple his theme and hang on to it, twisting it this way and that, and making it yield magically all manner of strange and precious things.”

IfsMenWayGivingSaidStatesEnoughAbleJoyVirtueHumourStrangeMastersLaughterDown AndTiredExtremesRecoveryThemeStayingYieldWornPausesHumoristsPrecious ThingsJesterConsecutiveStaying Power
Book:And Even Now
Create image

“Before seeing Truffaut 's Small Change, I was afraid it was going to be one of those simple, natural films about childhood which I generally try to avoid I'm just not good enough to go to them. But this series of sketches on the general theme of the resilience of children turns out to be that rarity a poetic comedy that's really funny.”

TryingChildrenEnoughFilmTurnsNaturalSimpleComedySeeingChildhoodSeriesResilienceThemePoeticGood EnoughNot Good EnoughRaritySmall Changes
Book:When the lights go down
Create image

“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.”

MatterForceVoicePleasureSubjectsIgnoranceHugeListeningDrinkingMoodLustIntimacyEaseThemeLatinCoveredRelevantPrimitiveListenersMajestySpringtimeSubject MatterLove LustX Rated
Author:Carl Orff
Create image

“When I hear a man discoursing of virtue, or of any sort of wisdom, who is a true man and worthy of his theme, I am delighted beyond measure: and I compare the man and his words, and note the harmony and correspondence of them. And such an one I deem to be the true musician, having in himself a fairer harmony than that of the lyre.”

MenVirtueHe ManMusicianHarmonyNotesWorthyCompareThemeDelightedCorrespondenceTrue Man
Book:The Dialogues of Plato
Create image