Susan Sontag Quotes about Lying

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The writer's first job is not to have opinions but to tell the truth... and refuse to be an accomplice of lies and misinformation. Literature is the house of nuance and contrariness against the voices of simplification.

The writer's first job is not to have opinions but to tell the truth... and refuse to be an accomplice of lies and misinformation. Literature is the house of nuance and contrariness against the voices of simplification.

Susan Sontag

Jobs, Lying, Voice

Susan Sontag (2007). “At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches”, p.193, Macmillan

Sanity is a cozy lie.

Susan Sontag

Depression, Women, Lying

The truth is balance. However the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.

Susan Sontag

Truth, Lying, Opposites

I feel inauthentic at a party. ... Going to a party is a 'low' activity - the authentic self is compromised, fragmented - one plays 'roles.' One isn't fully present, beyond role-playing. One doesn't (can't) tell the full truth, which means one is lying, even if one doesn't literally tell lies.

Susan Sontag

Truth, Lying, Party

Susan Sontag (2012). “As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980”, p.317, Macmillan

The need for truth is not constant; no more than is the need for repose. An idea which is a distortion may have a greater intellectual thrust than the truth; it may better serve the needs of the spirit, which vary. The truth is balance, but the opposite of truth, which is unbalance, may not be a lie.

Susan Sontag

Lying, Opposites, Ideas

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

Part of the puzzle, surely, lies in the disconnect between official rhetoric and lived realities. Americans are constantly extolling “traditions”; litanies to family values are at the center of every politician’s discourse. And yet the culture of America is extremely corrosive of family life, indeed of all traditions except those redefined as “identities” that fit in the larger patterns of distinctiveness, cooperation, and openness to innovation.

Susan Sontag

Lying, Reality, America

Susan Sontag, Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (2003). “Susan Sontag: Ansprachen aus Anlass der Verleihung”

She felt herself needing more and more sleep. When she awoke in the morning, she thought of when she might lie down again - and when she would sleep. She started going to the movies.

Susan Sontag

Morning, Lying, Sleep

Susan Sontag (2009). “Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963”, p.171, Macmillan

Although photography generates works that can be called art-it requires subjectivity, it can lie, it gives aesthetic pleasure-photography is not, to begin with, an art form at all. Like language, it is a medium in which works of art (among other things) are made.

Susan Sontag

Photography, Art, Lying

Susan Sontag (2011). “On Photography”, p.130, Macmillan