In apartments and cottages, on the street and in the train... I listen... More and more, I turn into one large ear, always turning to another person.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
From the point of view of art, the butcher and the victim are equal as people. You need to see the people.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that in art, both the perpetrator and the victim hold equal significance and humanity.
Svetlana Alexievich's quote highlights the notion that art transcends the roles of individuals in a narrative, urging the viewer or reader to recognize the shared humanity of all parties involved, regardless of their moral standing. It calls attention to the importance of seeing beyond the labels of 'butcher' and 'victim' to understand the deeper human experiences that connect us.
Themes
ArtHumanityPerspectiveEmpathy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about the roles of characters in artistic storytelling.
More from Svetlana Alexievich
All quotes βThe subjects I wanted to write about - the mystery of the human soul, evil - didn't interest newspapers, and news reporting bored me.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
'Women's' war has its own colors, its own smells, its own lighting, and its own range of feelings. There are no heroes and incredible feats; there are simply people who are busy doing inhumanly human things.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
There is no need to give in to the compromise that totalitarian regimes always count on.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
I've been searching for a genre that would be most adequate to my vision of the world to convey how my ear hears and my eyes see life. I tried this and that, and finally, I chose a genre where human voices speak for themselves. But I don't just record a dry history of events and facts; I'm writing a history of human feelings.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
Nothing, not even human life, is more precious to us than our myths about ourselves.
Svetlana AlexievichRead
Similar quotes
l photograph what l do not wish to paint and l paint that which l cannot photograph.
Man RayRead
Jazz is the only music in which the same note can be played night after night but differently each time.
Ornette ColemanRead
Did you know that the human voice is the only pure instrument? That it has notes no other instrument has? It's like being between the keys of a piano. The notes are there, you can sing them, but they can't be found on any instrument. That's like me. I live in between this. I live in both worlds, the black and white world.
Nina SimoneRead
The magician to some degree is trying to drive him or herself mad in a controlled setting, within controlled laws.
Alan MooreRead
I don't know why you'd want to say your work comes from nature, because art is related to perception, not nature. All abstract artists try to tell you that what they do comes from nature, and I'm always trying to tell you that what I do is completely abstract. We're both saying something we want to be true.
Roy LichtensteinRead
Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It's that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that's what the poet does.
Allen GinsbergRead