An artist can respect the backfield of fact before which every human being stands and choose not to address those facts.

Tom Bissell
About This Quote

Robert Motherwell said, “An artist can respect the backfield of fact before which every human being stands and choose not to address those facts.” Unlike Motherwell, some artists are more willing to deal with reality. They may disagree with the facts of the world but they still recognize them and talk about them.

Source: Magic Hours: Essays On Creators And Creation

Some Similar Quotes
  1. I've been making a list of the things they don't teach you at school. They don't teach you how to love somebody. They don't teach you how to be famous. They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor. <span style="margin:15px;... - Neil Gaiman
  2. I’m a fake fact factory. The things I make are the things I make up. Also, as a side business, I make love. Actually, I just made that up. - Dora J. Arod
  3. The main facts in human life are five: birth, food, sleep, love and death. - E.m. Forster
  4. Sometimes, some lies that spoken with high confidencecould be more receptive than facts that spoken with doubt. - Toba Beta
  5. Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. I have only begun to learn content and peace of mind since I have resolved... - Thomas Henry Huxley
More Quotes By Tom Bissell
  1. A great writer reveals the truth even when he or she does not wish to.
  2. In the emergency of growing up, we all need heroes. But the father I grew up with was no hero to me, not then. He was too wounded in the head, too endlessly and terribly sad. Too funny, too explosive, too confusing. <span style="margin:15px; display:block"></span>Heroes...
  3. I could imagine a hot day. I could imagine a number of curious people spontaneously following a young man of great wisdom, a young man rumored to wield power over the mysterious afflictions they saw every day in their villages. They are not sure where...
  4. An artist can respect the backfield of fact before which every human being stands and choose not to address those facts.
  5. Reading gives one something to think about other than one's self.
Related Topics