Paul Valery Quotes

Reading is one of the most individual things that happens. So every reader is going to read a piece in a slightly different way, sometimes a radically different way.

Necessity is not an established fact, but an interpretation.

The beauty of any artwork is that it becomes the person that's watching it: What do you take out of it?

The difference is as great between The optics seeing as the objects seen. All manners take a tincture from our own; Or come discolor'd through out passions shown; Or fancy's beam enlarges, multiplies, Contracts, inverts, and gives ten thousand dyes.

The so-called paradoxes of an author, to which a reader takes exception, often exist not in the author's book at all, but rather in the reader's head.

A world view is probably an expression of self.

I'm not a slave to objectivity. I'm never quite sure what it means. And it means different things to different people.

When you look at art made by other people, you see what you need to see in it.

Of course, you can't legislate for how people are going to read.

It makes me uncomfortable to talk about meanings and things. It's better not to know so much about what things mean. Because the meaning, it's a very personal thing, and the meaning for me is different than the meaning for somebody else.

Meanings are not determined by situations, but we determine ourselves by the meanings we give to situations.

One man's observation is another man's closed book or flight of fancy.

No, I only like whether I like the story or not, essentially see something in it that isn't completely there.

Sometimes people only see horrible, terrible things in my paintings.

The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.

It is the mind which creates the world around us, and even though we stand side by side in the same meadow, my eyes will never see what is beheld by yours, my heart will never stir to the emotions with which yours is touched.

You and I do not see things as they are. We see things as we are.

Complete objectivity is not an option. We are all subjective about the way we respond to 'what is,' whether it's the people we encounter, the circumstances in our lives, or ourselves. What we can do is reduce our subjectivity - what I call 'I see, therefore it is.'

You're really looking for the truth of what the piece is about. And that's going to be different for different people.

Remember that my view, the only true view I can see with, is through the black eyes that I have.

We are not only what we read. We are how we read.

Art is supposed to hold up a mirror to its audience and ask, 'What do you believe? What do you think? What do you feel?' and if you look at a painting and it makes you feel nothing, that's a feeling as well.

To me, point of view is everything.

When people don't understand what they're watching, a lot of what they perceive has to do with who they themselves are.

One place exists as their interpretation of it. For the people living and thriving inside of it, it's another place.