20th century Quote by Jay McInerney

I think art can reflect tragedy.

— John Corigliano

“How do you turn catastrophe into art? Nowadays the process is automatic. A nuclear plant explodes? We'll have a play on the London stage…

— Julian Barnes

The core of literature is the idea of tragedy... You don't really learn much from the good things that happen to you.

— Cormac McCarthy

I don't think immediate tragedy is a very good source of art. It can be, but too often it's raw and painful and un-dealt-with.…

— Neil Gaiman

“Apocalyptic literature was created to speak in a powerful way and with a dramatic seriousness that would match the sense of hopelessness and terror…

— William J. Abraham

Great art is not a matter of presenting one side or another, but presenting a picture so full of the contradictions, tragedies, [and] insights…

— Pauli Murray

I consider tragedy the highest form of art.

— Joyce Carol Oates

While it is unlikely that poetry or art shall eliminate the reality of war in the twenty-first century, it is thrilling to know there…

— Aberjhani

Art may not have the power to change the course of history, but it can provide a perspective on historical events that needs to…

— Dave Brubeck

A great number of the disappointments and mishaps of the troubled world are the direct result of literature and the allied arts. It is…

— Christopher Hampton

I am also well aware that literature only has a minimal influence on political disputes or economic crises in the world, but its significance…

— Mo Yan

A world where a majority had imbibed the lessons implicit within tragic art would be one in which the consequences of our failures would…

— Alain de Botton