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Art Quote by John Barth

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““My feeling about technique in art is that it has about the same value as technique in lovemaking. That is to say, heartfelt ineptitude has its appeal and so does heartless skill; but what you want is passionate virtuosity.””

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More by John Barth

Tis e'er the wont of simple folk to prize the deed and o'erlook the motive, and of learned folk to discount the deed and…

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“So, I begin each day with a gesture of cynicism, and close it with a gesture of faith; or, if you prefer, begin it…

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I admire writers who can make complicated things simple, but my own talent has been to make simple things complicated.

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“That clever folk care less for what ye think than why ye think it.”

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Printed prose is historically a most peculiar, almost an aberrant way of telling stories, and by far the most inherently anesthetic: It is the…

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“There's a great difficulty in making choices if you have any imagination at all. Faced with such a multitude of desireable choices, no one…

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Self knowledge is always bad news.

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The first obligation of the writer is to be interesting. To be interesting; not to change the world.

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Yet everyone begins in the same place; how is it that most go along without difficulty but a few lose their way?

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A curious thing about written literature: It is about four thousand years old, but we have no way of knowing whether four thousand years…

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Nothing is loathsomer than the self-loathing of a self one loathes.

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He wishes he had never entered the funhouse. But he has. Then he wishes he were dead. But he's not. Therefore he will construct…

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Explore all 97 John Barth quotes

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The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science.

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That's the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you.

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“So, really," continued Jacob as if this were perfectly normal to expound on art in these circumstances, "when you think about it, the artists…

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“There are two options in art; either to adopt philosophical life by dissecting art, or to write your own philosophical life and claim it…

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The house has to serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary; the house is conservative.

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During human progress, every science is evolved out of its corresponding art.

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In literature and art memory is a synonym for invention. It is the life-blood of imagination, which faints and dies when the veins are…

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I think a business guy is different from an artist. They walk different paths. Artists create the best outputs when they're having fun. And…

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