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Susan Sontag Quotes - Page 20

All Quotes Age Aids Anxiety Art Awareness Beauty Cancer Change Character Comedy Communism Community Consciousness Country Criticism Culture Death Desire Destiny Detachment Dying Energy Evidence Exercise Failing Feelings Funny Giving Health Heart History Identity Illness Imagination Inspiration Inspirational Journey Joy Judgment Language Life Literature Love Lust Lying Memories Metaphor Morality Nature Pain Painting Passion Past Perfection Photography Pleasure Pollution Purpose Quality Reading Reality Revenge Risk Sexuality Silence Style Suffering Surrealism Today Tradition Tragedy Transformation Travel Understanding Values Violence Waiting War Writing

Art is not only about something; it is something. A work of art is a thing in the world, not just a text or commentary on the world.

Art is not only about something; it is something. A work of art is a thing in the world, not just a text or commentary on the world.

Art, World, Commentary

Susan Sontag (1983). “A Susan Sontag reader”, Vintage

The two ideas are antithetical. Insofar as photography is (or should be) about the world, the photographer counts for little, but insofar as it is the instrument of intrepid, questioning subjectivity, the photographer is all.

Photography, Ideas, Two

One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves.

Selfishness, Want, Messages

If I thought that what I'm doing when I write is expressing myself, I'd junk the typewriter. Writing is a much more complicated activity that that.

Writing, Typewriters, Junk

Any disease that is treated as a mystery and acutely enough feared will be felt to be morally, if not literally, contagious.

Disease, Mystery, Illness

Fear binds people together. And fear disperses them. Courage inspires communities: the courage of an example - for courage is as contagious as fear. But courage, certain kinds of courage, can also isolate the brave.

Courage, Fear, People

Susan Sontag (2007). “At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches”, p.233, Macmillan

The unanimously applauded, self-congratulatory bromides of a Soviet Party Congress seemed contemptible. The unanimity of the sanctimonious, reality-concealing rhetoric spouted by American officials and media commentators in recent days seems, well, unworthy of a mature democracy.

Party, Reality, Self

Susan Sontag (2007). “At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches”, p.142, Macmillan

Cancer patients are lied to, not just because the disease is (or is thought to be) a death sentence, but because it is felt to be obscene - in the original meaning of that word: ill-omened, abominable, repugnant to the senses.

Cancer, Disease, Patient

Susan Sontag (1979). “Illness as metaphor”, Vintage

Most of my reading is rereading.

Reading, Rereading

The photographer's intentions do not determine the meaning of a photograph, which will have its own career, blown by the whims and loyalties of the diverse communities that have use for it.

Loyalty, Careers, Community

Susan Sontag (2013). “Regarding the Pain of Others”, p.39, Macmillan

The ratio of authentic literature to trash in pornography may be somewhat lower than the ratio of novels of genuine literary meritto the entire volume of sub-literary fiction produced for mass taste. But it is probably not lower than, for instance, that of another somewhat shady sub-genre with a few first-rate books to its credit, science fiction.

Book, Literature, May

... liberal intellectualstend to have a classical theory of politics, in which the state has a monopoly of power; hoping thatthose in positions of authority may prove to be enlightened men, wielding power justly, they are natural, if cautious, allies of the "establishment.

Men, Allies, Wielding Power

If an irreducible distinction between theatre and cinema does exist, it may be this: Theatre is confined to a logical or continuous use of space. Cinemahas access to an alogical or discontinuous use of space.

Space, Theatre, Doe

... the place we assign to pornography depends on the goals we set for our own consciousness, our own experience.

Goal, Consciousness, Pornography

The freakish is no longer a private zone, difficult of access. People who are bizarre, in sexual disgrace, emotionally violent areseen daily on the newsstands, on TV, in the subways. Hobbesian man roams the streets, quite visible, with glitter in his hair.

Men, Hair, People

... one of art photography's most vigorous enterprises--[is] concentrating on victims, on the unfortunate--but without the compassionate purpose that such a project is expected to serve.

Photography, Art, Purpose

Susan Sontag (2011). “On Photography”, p.32, Macmillan

Pornography is a theatre of types, never of individuals.

Theatre, Individual, Type

'The Pornographic Imagination' (1967)

Love words, agonize over sentences. And pay attention to the world.

Attention, World, Pay

Susan Sontag (2007). “At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches”, p.267, Macmillan

A fiction about soft or easy deaths is part of the mythology of most diseases that are not considered shameful or demeaning.

Death, Memorial, Dying

The particular qualities and intentions of photographs tend to be swallowed up in the generalized pathos of time past.

Past, Quality, Photograph

Susan Sontag (2011). “On Photography”, p.22, Macmillan

My urge to write is an urge not to self-expressionism but to self-transcendence. My work is both bigger and smaller than I am.

Writing, Self, Transcendence

Writing is a mysterious activity.

Writing, Mysterious, Activity

Enemies are somewhere else, as the fighting is almost always “over there,” with Islamic fundamentalism now replacing Russian and Chinese communism as the implacable, furtive menace. And “terrorist” is a more flexible word than “communist.” It can unify a larger number of quite different struggles and interests. What this may mean is that the war will be endless---since there will always be some terrorism.

War, Struggle, Islamic

Susan Sontag (2007). “At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches”, p.200, Macmillan

One of the author's most ancient roles is to call the community to account for its hypocrisies and bad faith.

Hypocrisy, Community, Roles

Antonin Artaud, Susan Sontag (1976). “Antonin Artaud, Selected Writings”, p.18, Univ of California Press

There is a terrible, mean American resentment toward a writer who tries to do many things.

Mean, Trying, Resentment

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