The strange power of art is sometimes it can show that what people have in common is more urgent than what differentiates them. It seems to me it's something that theatre can do, but it's rare; it's very rare. John Berger More Quotes by John Berger More Quotes From John Berger Fanaticism comes from any form of chosen blindness accompanying the pursuit of a single dogma. John Berger pursuit dogma form Everything in life, is a question of drawing a life, John, and you have to decide for yourself where to draw it. You cant draw it for others. You can try, of course, but it doesn't work. People obeying rules laid down my somebody else is not the same thing as respecting life. And if you want to respect life, you have to draw a line. John Berger drawing trying people The spectator-buyer is meant to envy herself as she will become if she buys the product. She is meant to imagine herself transformed by the product into an object of envy for others, an envy which will then justify her loving herself. John Berger buyers envy imagine Do you know the legend about cicadas? They say they are the souls of poets who cannot keep quiet because, when they were alive, they never wrote the poems they wanted to. John Berger legends alive soul The opposite of love is not to hate but to separate. If love and hate have something in common it is because, in both cases, their energy is that of bringing and holding together John Berger hate opposites love Never chain your dogs together with sausages. One must accustom one's self to be bored. John Berger self blessing dog Capitalism survives by forcing the majority, whom it exploits, to define their own interests as narrowly as possible. This was once achieved by extensive deprivation. Today in the developed countries it is being achieved by imposing a false standard of what is and what is not desirable. John Berger majority today country For the artist, drawing is discovery. And that is not just a slick phrase; it is quite literally true. John Berger drawing artist discovery Oil painting did to appearances what capital did to social relations. It reduced everything to the equality of objects. Everything became exchangeable because everything became a commodity. John Berger painting oil appearance Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does. John Berger drawing photography doe The human imagination... has great difficulty in living strictly within the confines of a materialist practice or philosophy. It dreams, like a dog in its basket, of hares in the open. John Berger dog dream philosophy Today the discredit of words is very great. John Berger discredit hijacking today The animal has secrets which, unlike the secrets of caves, mountains, seas are specifically addressed to man. John Berger sea animal men To live and die amongst foreigners may seem less absurd than to live persecuted or tortured by one's fellow countrymen.... But toemigrate is always to dismantle the centre of the world, and so to move into a lost, disoriented one of fragments. John Berger may world moving All weddings are similar, but every marriage is different. John Berger wedding marriage different What do drawings mean to me? I really don't know. The activity absorbs me. I forget everything else in a way that I don't think happens with any other activity. John Berger forget-everything mean thinking Every authentic poem contributes to the labor of poetry... to bring together what life has separated or violence has torn apart... Poetry can repair no loss, but it defies the space which separates. And it does this by its continual labor of reassembling what has been scattered. John Berger space together loss Autobiography begins with a sense of being alone. It is an orphan form. John Berger orphan autobiography form Protest and anger practically always derives from hope, and the shouting out against injustice is always in the hope of those injustices being somewhat corrected and a little more justice established. John Berger shouting justice littles A man's presence suggests what he is capable of doing to you or for you. By contrast, a woman's presence... defines what can and cannot be done to her. John Berger contrast done men
