Jim Woodring Quotes

The 'squaring of the circle' is one of the many archetypal motifs which form the basic patterns of our dreams and fantasies. But it is distinguished by the fact that it is one of the most important of them from the functional point of view. Indeed, it could even be called the archetype of wholeness.

I didn't want to tell the tree or weed what it was. I wanted it to tell me something and through me express its meaning in nature.

When does an object become a symbol? All I know is you cannot force it.

Everything I do is a metaphor of the universal order.

Myths are stories that express meaning, morality or motivation. Whether they are true or not is irrelevant.

The simple tableau is so rich with meaning that whether represented on the mantelpiece or in the mind, it seems suspended, complete unto itself, somewhere in eternity.

Dreams are not without meaning wherever thay may come from-from fantasy, from the elements, or from other inspiration.

Indian names were either characteristic nicknames given in a playful spirit, deed names, birth names, or such as have a religious and symbolic meaning.

'Long Black Train' was inspired by a vision that I had of a long, black train running down this track way out in the middle of nowhere. I could see people standing out to the sides of this track watching this train go by. As I was walking, experiencing this vision, I kept asking myself, 'What does this vision mean and what is this train?'

You must be absolutely honest and true in the depicting of a totem for meaning is attached to every line. You must be most particular about detail and proportion.

Life is like an analogy.

As a folklorist, I have come to believe that no piece of folklore continues to be transmitted unless it means something - even if neither the speaker nor the audience can articulate what that meaning might be.

In Scripture, when something is repeated, especially a name, it shows an emotional connection, a deeper sense of meaning.

The highest ensign that men ever met and embraced under, the Cross itself, had no meaning save an accidental extrinsic one.

I suspect that dreams are an integral part of existence, with far more use for us than we've made of them...The fine line between the dream state and reality is at times, for me, quite grey.

No good book has ever been written that has in it symbols arrived at beforehand and stuck in. ... I tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a real sea and a real fish and real sharks. But if I made them good and true enough they would mean many things

Things admit of being used as symbols, because nature is a symbol, in the whole, and in every part.

I don't like symbolism that hits you over the head. A symbol should not be a cymbal.

This is an important point about symbols: they do not refer to historical events; they refer through historical events to spiritual or psychological principles and powers that are of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and that are everywhere.

It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward.

In a dream, we are simply confronted with various loaded symbols, and where one is exhausted, it gives way to another.

The color red is symbolic of passion and action, so this Vajrayogini, as she's called, comes with a mantra and she comes with these various weapons and accouterments that are all symbolic of the kind of activity that this principle, as it were, this psychological principle, does or activates in the world. And there's text and mantra as well.

Nature speaks in symbols and in signs.

As a plant produces its flower, so the psyche creates its symbols.

I think the benefit of a Catholic childhood is your belief in visual symbols as transmitters of information and clues about life, whether it's the mystery of life or life in general.