Long looking at paintings is equivalent to being dropped into a foreign city, where gradually, out of desire and despair, a few key words, then a little syntax make a clearing in the silence. Art... is a foreign city, and we deceive ourselves when we think it familiar... We have to recognize that the language of art, all art, is not our mother-tongue. Jeanette Winterson
About This Quote

This quotation from T.S. Eliot is a warning to those who would dabble in the arts. Painting and poetry, for instance, cannot be understood by those who have not experienced them. Instead, those inspired by a work of art should try to understand what they are viewing from the perspective of the artist.

The language of art can be interpreted in many ways, but that does not make it any less beautiful. In fact, the only way to fully grasp what you are experiencing is to examine it from the viewpoint of the artist themselves. This quote is a statement that art cannot be understood without reading between the lines and going beyond the words to find meaning.

Source: Art Objects: Essays On Ecstasy And Effrontery

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More Quotes By Jeanette Winterson
  1. You’ll get over it…” It’s the clichés that cause the trouble. To lose someone you love is to alter your life for ever. You don’t get over it because ‘it” is the person you loved. The pain stops, there are new people, but the gap...
  2. As your lover describes you, so you are.
  3. I want someone who is fierce and will love me until death and knows that love is as strong as death, and be on my side forever and ever. I want someone who will destroy and be destroyed by me.
  4. What should I do about the wild and the tame? The wild heart that wants to be free, and the tame heart that wants to come home. I want to be held. I don't want you to come too close. I want you to scoop...
  5. Why is the measure of love loss?
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