--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Real art has the capacity to make us…" description: "\"Real art has the capacity to make us nervous.\" — Susan Sontag" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/772/susan-sontag-332_art_real-art-has-the-capacity-to-make-us-ner_3212828.jpg" --- # Real art has the capacity to make us nervous. ![“Real art has the capacity to make us nervous.” quote by Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/772/susan-sontag-332_art_real-art-has-the-capacity-to-make-us-ner_3212828.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/772/susan-sontag-332_art_real-art-has-the-capacity-to-make-us-ner_3212828.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/772/susan-sontag-332_art_real-art-has-the-capacity-to-make-us-ner_3212828.jpg) > “Real art has the capacity to make us nervous.” [Susan Sontag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Art can provoke anxiety by confronting us with unsettling truths or unfamiliar perspectives. **In simple terms:** Art can make us uneasy. Key Takeaway Embrace discomfort as a sign of engagement. Themes art anxiety perception Mood provocative reflective Type critical philosophical When to use this quote - gallery visits - personal reflection - creative practice Key Concepts aesthetic theory psychology Questions to Reflect On - How does discomfort deepen your appreciation? - When does anxiety hinder enjoyment? A Different Perspective Art may also inspire fear rather than insight. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Art](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) [Art Capacity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art-capacity-1251775/) [Artist](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/artist/) [Capacity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/capacity/) [Design](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/design/) [Make Nervous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/make-nervous/) [Nervous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nervous/) [Real](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/real/) [Real Art](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/real-art-839618/) ## Related quotes > [The timelessness of art is its capacity to represent the transformation of endless becoming into being.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/the-timelessness-of-art-is-its-capacity-to-represent-the/) [Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/) > [Just as sport can, art has the capacity to cross so many boundaries like education, race and religion.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susie-wolff/just-as-sport-can-art-has-the-capacity-to-cross-so-many-boundaries/) [Susie Wolff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susie-wolff/) > [Each has his own happiness in his hands, as the artist handles the rude clay he seeks to reshape it into a figure; yet…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/each-has-his-own-happiness-in-his-hands-as-the-artist-handles-the-2/) [Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [Generals who can write always make me nervous.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ben-bradlee/generals-who-can-write-always-make-me-nervous/) [Ben Bradlee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ben-bradlee/) > [don't make each room a different color in a small apartment or you'll make yourself nervous.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elsie-de-wolfe/don-t-make-each-room-a-different-color-in-a-small-apartment-or-you-ll/) [Elsie de Wolfe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elsie-de-wolfe/) > [The real art is in the street, is making the artwork, and for that you have to involve people. The action is actually the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jr/the-real-art-is-in-the-street-is-making-the-artwork-and-for-that-you/) [JR](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jr/) > [“Art—real art—connects artists, and their art, and those who experience their art, to the metaphysical background of the world, to the imaginal world that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-harrod-buhner/art-real-art-connects-artists-and-their-art-and-those-who-experience/) [Stephen Harrod Buhner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-harrod-buhner/) > [I would like the whole world to be full with authentic art, throbbing with it, living with it, because that is the only way:…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rajneesh/i-would-like-the-whole-world-to-be-full-with-authentic-art-throbbing/) [Rajneesh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rajneesh/) > [I think there is a real art to walkabouts.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-middleton/i-think-there-is-a-real-art-to-walkabouts/) [Kate Middleton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-middleton/) > [Before the money or anything, number one, it was just to put out real music, real stuff with a passion, real art.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lil-b/before-the-money-or-anything-number-one-it-was-just-to-put-out-real/) [Lil B](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lil-b/) > [I try to use models at least for the main characters because of the nature of my art. I tend to focus on the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/floyd-cooper/i-try-to-use-models-at-least-for-the-main-characters-because-of-the/) [Floyd Cooper](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/floyd-cooper/) > [You'll need to suffer to make any real art.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chuck-palahniuk/you-ll-need-to-suffer-to-make-any-real-art/) [Chuck Palahniuk](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chuck-palahniuk/) > [Real art is basic emotion. If a scene is handled with simplicity - and I don't mean simple - it'll be good, and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-wayne/real-art-is-basic-emotion-if-a-scene-is-handled-with-simplicity-and-i/) [John Wayne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-wayne/) > [That's what New York is like - you can't have real art happen in an institution because rich people can make the world stop.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/m-i-a/that-s-what-new-york-is-like-you-can-t-have-real-art-happen-in-an/) [M.I.A](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/m-i-a/) > [James Franco has turned his life into a real art project. In my opinion, that's the way to live.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fred-armisen/james-franco-has-turned-his-life-into-a-real-art-project-in-my/) [Fred Armisen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fred-armisen/) ## 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/) [Explore all 644 Susan Sontag quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/) ## More Art quotes > [True works of art contain their own theory and give us the measurement according to which we should judge them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/true-works-of-art-contain-their-own-theory-and-give-us-the/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [Before Noah, men having only water to drink, could not find the truth. Accordingly...they became abominably wicked, and they were justly exterminated by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/benjamin-franklin/before-noah-men-having-only-water-to-drink-could-not-find-the-truth/) [Benjamin Franklin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/benjamin-franklin/) > [“Hear the sum of the whole matter in the compass of one brief word — every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aeschylus/hear-the-sum-of-the-whole-matter-in-the-compass-of-one-brief-word/) [Aeschylus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aeschylus/) > [I think most artists feel like they're outside society - no matter how many accolades they receive, or how much money is in your…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aaron-rose/i-think-most-artists-feel-like-they-re-outside-society-no-matter-how/) [Aaron Rose](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aaron-rose/) > [The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation, be it in art or in science.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erich-fromm/the-capacity-to-be-puzzled-is-the-premise-of-all-creation-be-it-in/) [Erich Fromm](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erich-fromm/) > [That's the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ray-bradbury/that-s-the-great-secret-of-creativity-you-treat-ideas-like-cats-you/) [Ray Bradbury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ray-bradbury/) > [“So, really," continued Jacob as if this were perfectly normal to expound on art in these circumstances, "when you think about it, the artists…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/justina-chen-headley/so-really-continued-jacob-as-if-this-were-perfectly-normal-to-expound/) [Justina Chen Headley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/justina-chen-headley/) > [“There are two options in art; either to adopt philosophical life by dissecting art, or to write your own philosophical life and claim it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/taf-teh/there-are-two-options-in-art-either-to-adopt-philosophical-life-by/) [Taf Teh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/taf-teh/) > [The house has to serve comfort. The work of art is revolutionary; the house is conservative.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adolf-loos/the-house-has-to-serve-comfort-the-work-of-art-is-revolutionary-the/) [Adolf Loos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adolf-loos/) > [During human progress, every science is evolved out of its corresponding art.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/herbert-spencer/during-human-progress-every-science-is-evolved-out-of-its/) [Herbert Spencer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/herbert-spencer/) > [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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-aris-willmott/in-literature-and-art-memory-is-a-synonym-for-invention-it-is-the/) [Robert Aris Willmott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-aris-willmott/) > [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…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-dragon/i-think-a-business-guy-is-different-from-an-artist-they-walk/) [G-Dragon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-dragon/) > [“The only thing--I tell you this straight from the heart--that disgusts me in Salzburg is that one can't have any proper social intercourse with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart/the-only-thing-i-tell-you-this-straight-from-the-heart-that-disgusts/) [Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wolfgang-amadeus-mozart/) > [The sublime in art is the attempt to express the infinite without finding in the realm of phenomena any object which proves itself fitting…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel/the-sublime-in-art-is-the-attempt-to-express-the-infinite-without/) [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/georg-wilhelm-friedrich-hegel/) > [Art isn't done to decorate apartments, but to wage war against the enemy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pablo-picasso/art-isn-t-done-to-decorate-apartments-but-to-wage-war-against-the/) [Pablo Picasso](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pablo-picasso/) [Browse all 48,643 Art quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/art/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Real art has the capacity to make us nervous.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Susan Sontag" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/real-art-has-the-capacity-to-make-us-nervous/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Art" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/real-art-has-the-capacity-to-make-us-nervous/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/772/susan-sontag-332_art_real-art-has-the-capacity-to-make-us-ner_3212828.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/772/susan-sontag-332_art_real-art-has-the-capacity-to-make-us-ner_3212828.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/772/susan-sontag-332_art_real-art-has-the-capacity-to-make-us-ner_3212828.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Real art has the capacity to make us nervous.” — Susan Sontag", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Susan Sontag", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-sontag/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Real art has the capacity to...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/real-art-has-the-capacity-to-make-us-nervous/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-sontag/real-art-has-the-capacity-to-make-us-nervous/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```