I don't have a readership, I have a thinkership. I guess this is why what I do is called "conceptual writing." The idea is much more important than the product. Kenneth Goldsmith More Quotes by Kenneth Goldsmith More Quotes From Kenneth Goldsmith An updated notion of genius would have to center around one's mastery of information and its dissemination. Kenneth Goldsmith mastery information genius If you work on something a little bit every day, you end up with something that is massive. Kenneth Goldsmith massive ends littles It's not plagiarism in the digital age -- it's repurposing. Kenneth Goldsmith digital-age digital age I've been trolled lots on Twitter. But I understand trolls for what they are and I don't let them get to me. They take my bait, so I'm in charge of the discourse. Kenneth Goldsmith troll The best thing about conceptual poetry is that it doesn’t need to be read. You don’t have to read it. As a matter of fact, you can write books, and you don’t even have to read them. My books, for example, are unreadable. All you need to know is the concept behind them. Here’s every word I spoke for a week. Here’s a year’s worth of weather reports... and without ever having to read these things, you understand them. Kenneth Goldsmith writing book years You can't show me a sentence, word, or phoneme that is meaningless; by its nature, language is packed with meaning and emotion. Kenneth Goldsmith show-me emotion language The moment we shake our addiction to narrative and give up our strong-headed intent that language must say something "meaningful," we open ourselves up to different types of linguistic experience, which could include sorting and structuring words in unconventional ways: by constraint, by sound, by the way words look, and so forth, rather than always feeling the need to coerce them toward meaning. Kenneth Goldsmith giving-up strong meaningful Conceptual writing is looking for that "Aha!" moment, when something so simple, right under our noses, is revealed as being awe- inspiring, profound, and transcendent. Kenneth Goldsmith simple writing profound If you don't want something to exist - and there are many reasons to want to keep things private - keep it off the web. But if you put it in digital form, expect it to be bootlegged, remixed, manipulated, and endlessly commented upon. Kenneth Goldsmith digital want-something reason And I think this is the real epiphany: the ways in which culture is distributed become profoundly more intriguing as a cultural artifact itself. What we've experienced is an inversion of consumption, one in which we've come to prefer the acts of acquisition over that which we are acquiring, the bottles over the wine. Kenneth Goldsmith wine real thinking New York City is just one node on the global cultural scene now. Social media reflects the state of the world, so I've become more devoted to that. To be a NYC artist today feels local and small. Social media feels now. Kenneth Goldsmith artist today world Language is material to shape and mold, not only a transparent or invisible medium for communication, business contracts, or telling stories. Kenneth Goldsmith mold communication stories All of our media is made of language: our films, our music, our images, and of course our words. How different this is from analog production, where, if you were somehow able to peel back the emulsion from, say, a photograph, you wouldn't find a speck of language lurking below the surface. Kenneth Goldsmith our-words media different I never wanted my books to be mistaken for poetry or fiction books; I wanted to write reference books. But instead of referring to something, they refer to nothing. Kenneth Goldsmith writing book fiction We're living in a time when the sheer amount of language has exponentially increased. As writers, if we wish to be contemporary, I think we need to acknowledge that the very nature of the materials that we're working with - the landscape of language - is very different than it was a few decades ago. Kenneth Goldsmith different wish thinking I often don't endorse what I tweet, rather I want to throw things about to spark conversation or controversy. What I think about something is not particularly important when talking to thousands of unknown strangers. Kenneth Goldsmith important talking thinking I think that writers often try too hard in the name of expression, when often it's just a matter of reframing what's around you or republishing a preexisting text into a new environment that makes for a successful work. Kenneth Goldsmith successful expression thinking Automation and technology don't cure behavioral ruts: they just create new instances of them. Kenneth Goldsmith automation ruts technology I don’t trust painting. At least not in New York. Most painting here relies on formula and repetition, whoring itself to the market. There seems to be no risk and once a painter gets a strategy, very little exploration. As a result, I stopped thinking about painting a long time ago. I prefer forms of art that are more market-resistant, more idea-based, more - for lack of a better word - risky. Kenneth Goldsmith new-york art thinking For me, Twitter is a public persona. I don't interact. It's a lousy form for conversation and opinion, but a wonderful propaganda and sloganeering tool. I use it as a one-way street. Kenneth Goldsmith propaganda opinion wonderful
