Unlike film and TV, theater is a luxury object, but one that ordinary middle-class people can still afford. Above all, it isn't a mass medium: Live theater is a small-scale, handmade art form. Intimacy is what makes it special.
Terry TeachoutRead
No translation can possibly be perfect. Every production and every performance is a different path up the mountain, and nobody ever makes it all the way to the summit.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Translations are inherently imperfect and unique to each interpreter's experience.
This quote highlights the idea that every translation of a work of art possesses its own unique interpretations and nuances, much like various routes taken up a mountain. No matter how skilled the interpreter or the quality of the translation, it can never capture the original perfectly, emphasizing the subjective nature of art and expression.
Themes
TranslationArtImperfectionPerformanceInterpretation
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the value of art translations during a symposium.
More from Terry Teachout
All quotes βNo, I don't know how to get young people to start listening to jazz again. But I do know this: Any symphony orchestra that thinks it can appeal to under-30 listeners by suggesting that they 'should' like Schubert and Stravinsky has already lost the battle.
Terry TeachoutRead
Century-old records are the closest thing we have to a time machine. To listen to the voice of Theodore Roosevelt or the piano playing of Claude Debussy is to feel the years falling away like autumn leaves from a maple tree.
Terry TeachoutRead
Just as most of us prefer to watch a trapeze artist work without a net, we like to be absolutely sure that a virtuoso is giving us our money's worth, and a seemingly effortless performance, no matter how spectacular it may be, deprives us of that slightly sadistic thrill.
Terry TeachoutRead
Similar quotes
You always need that spark of imagination. Sometimes I'm midway through a book before it happens. However, I don't wait for the muse to descend, I sit down every day and I work when I'm not delivering lambs on the farm.
Barbara KingsolverRead
The arts have always served relationships between people of different cultures so well. In a way, the arts function as a very serious kind of ambassador.
Herbie HancockRead
Images of people, cities, and landscapes from the air tell a unique story about our personal space and how we relate to one another. I've always aimed to address the bigger picture and later trends. In many ways, what a photographer does is give others a chance to step back and look at their world and gain perspective on where we stand, and what that means.
Vincent LaforetRead
I would like to be Maria, but there is La Callas who demands that I carry myself with her dignity.
Maria CallasRead
There's something peculiar about writing fiction. It requires an interesting balance between seeing the world as a child and having the wisdom of a middle-aged person. The further you get from childhood and the experience of the teenage years, the greater the danger of losing that wellspring.
Kazuo IshiguroRead
If, in 2014, we're still making 'white savior movies,' then it's just lazy and unfortunate. We've grown up as a country, and cinema should be able to reflect what's true. And what's true is that black people are the center of their own lives and should tell their own stories from their own perspectives.
Ava DuvernayRead