It's easy to photograph light reflecting from a surface, the truly hard part is capturing the light in the air.
Walker EvansRead
It is easy to imagine fantasy as physical and myth as real. We do it almost every moment. We do this as we dream, as we think, and as we cope with the world about us. But these worlds of fantasy that we form into the solid things around us are the source of our discontent. They inspire our search to find ourselves.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote explores how our imaginations create both fantasy and myth, influencing our perception of reality and our quest for identity.
Walker Evans highlights the interplay between our fantasies and realities, suggesting that while we may find comfort and inspiration in our imagined worlds, they can also lead to dissatisfaction with our actual lives. The essence of the quote lies in understanding that these fabricated realms not only shape our dreams and thoughts, but also spark our pursuit of self-discovery, making us aware of the disconnect between our idealized visions and the realities we face.
Themes
ImaginationFantasyMythSelf-DiscoveryRealityDiscontent
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about the power of imagination.
More from Walker Evans
All quotes →That’s my idea of what a portrait ought to be, anonymous and documentary and a straightforward picture of mankind.
Walker EvansRead
The meaning of quality in photography's best pictures lies written in the language of vision. That language is learned by chance, not system.
Walker EvansRead
It is the way to educate your eye and more. Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop.
Walker EvansRead
Stare, pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long.
Walker EvansRead
Whether he is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts.
Walker EvansRead
Similar quotes
Yes. We both have a bad feeling. Tonight we shall take our bad feelings and share them, and face them. We shall mourn. We shall drain the bitter dregs of mortality. Pain shared, my brother, is pain not doubled, but halved. No man is an island.
Neil GaimanRead
If we use common words on a great occasion, they are the more striking, because they are felt at once to have a particular meaning, like old banners, or everyday clothes, hung up in a sacred place.
George EliotRead
The weight of the old world is stifling, and trying to shovel its weight off your life is tiring just to think about. The constant shuttling of opinions is tiring, and the shuffling of papers across desks, the chopping of logic and the trimming of attitudes. There must, somewhere, be a simpler, more violent world.
Hilary MantelRead
A slave is he who cannot speak his thoughts.
EuripidesRead
Puddleglum's my name. But it doesn't matter if you forget it. I can always tell you again.
C. S. LewisRead
I don't believe we have a professional self from Mondays through Fridays and a real self for the rest of the time.
Sheryl SandbergRead