A satirist is a man whose flesh creeps so at the ugly and the savage and the incongruous aspects of society that he has to express them as brutally and nakedly as possible in order to get relief.
John Dos PassosRead
There's something wonderfully exciting about the quiet sing song of an aeroplane overhead with all the guns in creation lighting out at it, and searchlights feeling their way across the sky like antennae, and the earth shaking snort of the bombs and the whimper of shrapnel pieces when they come down to patter on the roof.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote evokes the beauty and excitement found amid the chaos of war.
In this vivid description by John Dos Passos, the juxtaposition of the serene sound of a plane flying overhead with the violent chaos of warfare underscores the complex emotions tied to such experiences. It suggests a paradox where beauty can exist even in the most tumultuous and destructive circumstances, highlighting the interplay of fear, awe, and the human capacity to find fascination in the unfathomable.
Themes
WarBeautyChaosConflictAwe
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the complexities of human emotion during wartime.
More from John Dos Passos
All quotes βAnything that happens to you has some bearing upon what you write.
John Dos PassosRead
Breaking with old friends is one of the most painful of the changes in all that piling up of a multitude of small distasteful changes that constitutes growing older.
John Dos PassosRead
Love is cheap. You can buy it anywhere. Lives are cheap. It's money that's dear. You have to work days and sit up nights thinking how to make money.
John Dos PassosRead
The mind cannot support moral chaos for long. Men are under as strong a compulsion to invent an ethical setting for their behavior as spiders are to weave themselves webs
John Dos PassosRead
U.S.A. is the speech of the people
John Dos PassosRead
Similar quotes
I'm not in any rush. I'm not somebody who, if I write a song, I get it out. That's not something I've ever really quite done.
Bruce SpringsteenRead
Hot weather opens the skull of a city, exposing its white brain, and its heart of nerves, which sizzle like the wires inside a lightbulb. And there exudes a sour extra-human smell that makes the very stone seem flesh-alive, webbed and pulsing.
Truman CapoteRead
It's unfortunate that a lot of people think African-American female artists are monolithically R&B this-or-that, don't have to do anything by default.
Janelle MonaeRead
Why, I just shake the buildings out of my sleeves.
Frank Lloyd WrightRead
The way someone who's being photographed presents himself to the camera, and the effect of the photographer's response on that presence, is what the making of a portrait is all about.
Richard AvedonRead
I think that when you're making your way up in the music industry, you have all these heroes and the reasons why they are your heroes. As soon as you get into the industry, your guidelines change a little bit. For me, my heroes now are great people first and great artists second.
Taylor SwiftRead