I sense the world might be more dreamlike, metaphorical, and poetic than we currently believe--but just as irrational as sympathetic magic when looked at in a typically scientific way. I wouldn't be surprised if poetry--poetry in the broadest sense, in the sense of a world filled with metaphor, rhyme, and recurring patterns, shapes, and designs--is how the world works. The world isn't logical, it's a song.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that reality is more imaginative and poetic than scientific logic may indicate.
David Byrne expresses the idea that the essence of the world transcends scientific rationality and is instead rooted in metaphor, rhythm, and patterns, much like poetry. He implies that life possesses a dreamlike quality that resonates with creativity and emotional depth, highlighting that understanding our existence requires an appreciation for its artistic and irrational facets.
In practice
In a discussion about the nature of reality at a poetry reading.
Forces that you might think are utterly unrelated to creativity can have a big impact. Technology, obviously, but environment, too. Even financial structures can affect the actual content of a song. The making of music is profoundly affected by the market.
When things get so absurd and so stupid and so ridiculous that you just can't bear it, you cannot help but turn everything into a joke.
I certainly agree that putting everything into little genres is counterproductive. You're not going to get too many surprises if you only focus on the stuff that fits inside the box that you know.
You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends.
Real sadness is such an all-encompassing intense thing that it takes you out of your humdrum existence. If you can still function, you want to show it while it's peaking. So when people tell you to cheer up, it's not always the best thing.
I find rebellion packaged by a major corporation a little hard to take seriously.
All this creative power of the mind amounts to no more than the faculty of compounding, transposing, augmenting, or diminishing the materials afforded us the by senses and experience.
There is superficial conflict but deep concord between science and theistic religion, but superficial concord and deep conflict between science and naturalism
Dwell in peace in the home of your own being, and the Messenger of Death will not be able to touch you.
If we destroy human rights and rule of law in response to terrorism, they have won.
For sin is just this, what man cannot by its very nature do with his whole being; it is possible to silence the conflict in the soul, but it is not possible to uproot it
For me, being raised in a free America made all the difference.
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