--- title: "18 Modern Quotes By Susan Sontag" description: "18 Modern quotes by Susan Sontag. Plus more from Susan Sontag and more Modern sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/580/susan-sontag-332_interest_what-interests-me-is-to-understand-the-n_398824.jpg" --- > [What interests me is to understand the nature of the modern.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/what-interests-me-is-to-understand-the-nature-of-the-modern/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/580/susan-sontag-332_interest_what-interests-me-is-to-understand-the-n_398824.jpg) > [Perversity is the muse of modern literature.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/perversity-is-the-muse-of-modern-literature/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f8f/susan-sontag-332_books_perversity-is-the-muse-of-modern-literat_1223298.jpg) > [Everything should be understood, and anything can be transformed - that is the modern view.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/everything-should-be-understood-and-anything-can-be-transformed-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/caf/susan-sontag-332_change_everything-should-be-understood-and-anyt_2041440.jpg) > [What seems distinctively modern as a unit of thought, of art, of discourse is the fragment; and the quotation is one kind…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/what-seems-distinctively-modern-as-a-unit-of-thought-of-art-of/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a24/susan-sontag-332_art_what-seems-distinctively-modern-as-a-uni_2542929.jpg) > [The two pioneering forces of modern sensibility are Jewish moral seriousness and homosexual aestheticism and irony.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-two-pioneering-forces-of-modern-sensibility-are-jewish-moral/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9a7/susan-sontag-332_force_the-two-pioneering-forces-of-modern-sens_2000665.jpg) > [It's almost as if this is the fundamental procedure in modern society: duplication and recycling.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/it-s-almost-as-if-this-is-the-fundamental-procedure-in-modern-society/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fd4/susan-sontag-332_duplication_it-s-almost-as-if-this-is-the-fundamenta_1131950.jpg) > [Modern discussions of the possibility of tragedy are not exercises in literary analysis; they are exercises in cultural diagnostics, more or less…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/modern-discussions-of-the-possibility-of-tragedy-are-not-exercises-in/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1e7/susan-sontag-332_analysis_modern-discussions-of-the-possibility-of_2586481.jpg) > [Jews and homosexuals are the outstanding creative minorities in contemporary urban culture. Creative, that is, in the truest sense: they are creators…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/jews-and-homosexuals-are-the-outstanding-creative-minorities-in/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b88/susan-sontag-332_contemporary_jews-and-homosexuals-are-the-outstanding_1050030.jpg) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ce1/susan-sontag-332_advice_with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-can_29301.jpg) > [Detachment is the prerogative of an elite; and as the dandy is the nineteenth century's surrogate for the aristocrat in matters ofculture,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/detachment-is-the-prerogative-of-an-elite-and-as-the-dandy-is-the/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f44/susan-sontag-332_age_detachment-is-the-prerogative-of-an-elit_1474016.jpg) > [Much of modern art is devoted to lowering the threshold of what is terrible. By getting us used to what, formerly, we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/much-of-modern-art-is-devoted-to-lowering-the-threshold-of-what-is/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9c0/susan-sontag-332_art_much-of-modern-art-is-devoted-to-lowerin_2527614.jpg) > [Ours is a culture based on excess, on overproduction; the result is a steady loss of sharpness in our sensory experience. All…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/ours-is-a-culture-based-on-excess-on-overproduction-the-result-is-a/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8f1/susan-sontag-332_culture_ours-is-a-culture-based-on-excess-on-ove_463391.jpg) > [The felt unreliability of human experience brought about by the inhuman acceleration of historical change has led every sensitive modern mind to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-felt-unreliability-of-human-experience-brought-about-by-the/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4c2/susan-sontag-332_acceleration_the-felt-unreliability-of-human-experien_1652328.jpg) > [In most modern instances, interpretation amounts to the philistine refusal to leave the work of art alone. Real art has the capacity…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/in-most-modern-instances-interpretation-amounts-to-the-philistine/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c14/susan-sontag-332_amount_in-most-modern-instances-interpretation_2304819.jpg) > [Photographs are perhaps the most mysterious of all the objects that make up, and thicken, the environment we recognize as modern. Photographs…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-are-perhaps-the-most-mysterious-of-all-the-objects-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d88/susan-sontag-332_arms_photographs-are-perhaps-the-most-mysteri_759671.jpg) > [Photography - the supreme form of travel, of tourism - is the principal modern means for enlarging the world. As a branch…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photography-the-supreme-form-of-travel-of-tourism-is-the-principal/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/0ee/susan-sontag-332_abnormality_photography-the-supreme-form-of-travel-o_1741058.jpg) > [Though collecting quotations could be considered as merely an ironic mimetism -- victimless collecting, as it were... in a world that is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/though-collecting-quotations-could-be-considered-as-merely-an-ironic-2/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/88a/susan-sontag-332_becoming_though-collecting-quotations-could-be-co_1306608.jpg) > [Most writers I know have switched to word processors. I haven't but I'm very curious about why people like it so much.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/most-writers-i-know-have-switched-to-word-processors-i-haven-t-but-i/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9bb/susan-sontag-332_activity_most-writers-i-know-have-switched-to-wor_1792029.jpg) ## Other authors on Modern ## More by Susan Sontag > [the appetite for thinking must be regulated, as all sensible people know, for it may stifle one's life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-appetite-for-thinking-must-be-regulated-as-all-sensible-people/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [We are ruled by quotations.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/we-are-ruled-by-quotations/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Unfortunately, moral beauty in art - like physical beauty in a person - is extremely perishable. It is nowhere so durable as artistic or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/unfortunately-moral-beauty-in-art-like-physical-beauty-in-a-person-is/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Like the collector, the photographer is animated by a passion that, even when it appears to be for the present, is linked to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/like-the-collector-the-photographer-is-animated-by-a-passion-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [ Anthropology has always struggled with an intense, fascinated repulsion towards its subject… \[The anthropologist\] submits himself to the exotic to confirm his own inner… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/anthropology-has-always-struggled-with-an-intense-fascinated/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [“Why not eliminate schooling between age 12-16? It’s biologically + psychologically too turbulent a time to be cooped up inside, made to sit all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/why-not-eliminate-schooling-between-age-12-16-it-s-biologically/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them that they can never…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/to-photograph-people-is-to-violate-them-by-seeing-them-as-they-never/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/one-set-of-messages-of-the-society-we-live-in-is-consume-grow-do-what/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Currently intellectuals in Western Europe and North America are extremely demoralized and shaken by the rise of a virulent conservative tendency (which some have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/currently-intellectuals-in-western-europe-and-north-america-are/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [As objects of contemplation, images of the atrocious can answer to several different needs. To steel oneself against weakness. To make oneself more numb.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/as-objects-of-contemplation-images-of-the-atrocious-can-answer-to/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The creative phase of an idea coincides with the period during which it insists, cantankerously, on its boundaries, on what makes it different; but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-creative-phase-of-an-idea-coincides-with-the-period-during-which/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [Photographs objectify: they turn an event or a person into something that can be possessed.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/photographs-objectify-they-turn-an-event-or-a-person-into-something/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [I'm not interested in giving aid and comfort to the neo­-Conservatives.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/i-m-not-interested-in-giving-aid-and-comfort-to-the-neo-conservatives/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) > [The feminist movement has been important to me because it's made me feel less odd and also because it has made me understand some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/the-feminist-movement-has-been-important-to-me-because-it-s-made-me/) [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/modern/susan-sontag/#itemlist", "name": "18 Modern Quotes By Susan Sontag", "numberOfItems": 18, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "What interests me is to understand the nature of the modern.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/what-interests-me-is-to-understand-the-nature-of-the-modern/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/580/susan-sontag-332_interest_what-interests-me-is-to-understand-the-n_398824.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/580/susan-sontag-332_interest_what-interests-me-is-to-understand-the-n_398824.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/580/susan-sontag-332_interest_what-interests-me-is-to-understand-the-n_398824.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“What interests me is to understand the nature of the modern.” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Perversity is the muse of modern literature.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/perversity-is-the-muse-of-modern-literature/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f8f/susan-sontag-332_books_perversity-is-the-muse-of-modern-literat_1223298.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f8f/susan-sontag-332_books_perversity-is-the-muse-of-modern-literat_1223298.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f8f/susan-sontag-332_books_perversity-is-the-muse-of-modern-literat_1223298.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Perversity is the muse of modern literature.” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Everything should be understood, and anything can be transformed - that is the modern view.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/everything-should-be-understood-and-anything-can-be-transformed-that/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/caf/susan-sontag-332_change_everything-should-be-understood-and-anyt_2041440.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/caf/susan-sontag-332_change_everything-should-be-understood-and-anyt_2041440.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/caf/susan-sontag-332_change_everything-should-be-understood-and-anyt_2041440.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Everything should be understood, and anything can be transformed - that is the modern view.” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "What seems distinctively modern as a unit of thought, of art, of discourse is the fragment; 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they are exercises in cultural diagnostics, more or less disguised.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/modern-discussions-of-the-possibility-of-tragedy-are-not-exercises-in/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1e7/susan-sontag-332_analysis_modern-discussions-of-the-possibility-of_2586481.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1e7/susan-sontag-332_analysis_modern-discussions-of-the-possibility-of_2586481.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/1e7/susan-sontag-332_analysis_modern-discussions-of-the-possibility-of_2586481.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Modern discussions of the possibility of tragedy are not exercises in literary analysis; they are exercises…” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Jews and homosexuals are the outstanding creative minorities in contemporary urban culture. Creative, that is, in the truest sense: they are creators of sensibilities. The two pioneering forces of modern sensibility are Jewish moral seriousness and homosexual aestheticism and irony.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/jews-and-homosexuals-are-the-outstanding-creative-minorities-in/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b88/susan-sontag-332_contemporary_jews-and-homosexuals-are-the-outstanding_1050030.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b88/susan-sontag-332_contemporary_jews-and-homosexuals-are-the-outstanding_1050030.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b88/susan-sontag-332_contemporary_jews-and-homosexuals-are-the-outstanding_1050030.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Jews and homosexuals are the outstanding creative minorities in contemporary urban culture. Creative, that…” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is invariably extended to assert that the character causes the disease -- because it has not expressed itself. Passion moves inward, striking and blighting the deepest cellular recesses.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-cancer-the-romantic-idea-that/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ce1/susan-sontag-332_advice_with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-can_29301.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ce1/susan-sontag-332_advice_with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-can_29301.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ce1/susan-sontag-332_advice_with-the-modern-diseases-once-tb-now-can_29301.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“With the modern diseases (once TB, now cancer) the romantic idea that the disease expresses the character is…” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Detachment is the prerogative of an elite; and as the dandy is the nineteenth century's surrogate for the aristocrat in matters ofculture, so Camp is the modern dandyism. 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Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. By reducing the work of art to its content and then interpreting that, one tames the work of art. 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I haven't but I'm very curious about why people like it so much. 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