Susan Sontag Quotes

A collection of quotes by Susan Sontag.

Susan Sontag (1933-2004) was an influential American writer, cultural critic, and filmmaker. Born in New York City, Sontag was known for her insightful and provocative essays on a wide range of topics, including art, literature, philosophy, and politics.

Sontag attended the University of Chicago and later completed her graduate studies at Harvard University. In the early years of her career, she worked as an English teacher and published her first novel, "The Benefactor," in 1963. However, it was her collection of essays, "Against Interpretation," published in 1966, that brought her critical recognition and established her as a significant voice in contemporary intellectual discourse.

Throughout her life, Sontag actively engaged in political activism, particularly in issues related to human rights and social justice. She spoke out against the Vietnam War, advocated for the rights of oppressed groups, and was a prominent figure in the feminist movement.

Sontag's works often displayed her strong interest in exploring the relationship between art and society. Some of her notable books include "On Photography," "Illness as Metaphor," and "Regarding the Pain of Others." Her writings combined personal experiences, sharp analysis, and a deep understanding of cultural and historical contexts.

Susan Sontag's contributions to literature and cultural criticism have left a lasting impact, earning her numerous awards and accolades throughout her career. Her elegant prose and thought-provoking ideas continue to inspire and challenge readers worldwide.

The past itself, as historical change continues to accelerat

The past itself, as historical change continues to accelerate, has become the most surreal of subjects - making it possible... to see a new beauty in what is vanishing.

I do not think white America is committed to granting equali

I do not think white America is committed to granting equality to the American Negro. This is a passionately racist country it will continue to be so in the foreseeable future.

The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works

The aim of all commentary on art now should be to make works of art - and, by analogy, our own experience - more, rather than less, real to us. The function of criticism should be to show how it is what it is, even that it is what it is, rather than to show what it means.

What is the most beautiful in virile men is something femini

What is the most beautiful in virile men is something feminine what is most beautiful in feminine women is something masculine.

Authoritarian political ideologies have a vested interest in

Authoritarian political ideologies have a vested interest in promoting fear, a sense of the imminence of takeover by aliens and real diseases are useful material.

The truth is that Mozart, Pascal, Boolean Algebra, Shakespea

The truth is that Mozart, Pascal, Boolean Algebra, Shakespeare, parliamentary government, baroque churches, Newton, the emancipation of women, Kant, Marx, and Balanchine ballets don't redeem what this particular civilization has wrought upon the world. The white race is the cancer of human history.

Truth Government Women History Race

Self-respect. It would make me lovable. And it's the secret

Self-respect. It would make me lovable. And it's the secret to good sex.

Life Love Sex Inspirational

With genius, as with beauty -- all, well almost all, is forg

With genius, as with beauty -- all, well almost all, is forgiven.

Beauty Society Forgiveness Genius Generosity Social Norms Exemptions Leniency

An erotic life is, for more and more people, that which can

An erotic life is, for more and more people, that which can be captured on digital photographs and on video. And perhaps the torture is more attractive, as something to record, when it has a sexual component.

Life People

To take a photograph is to participate in another person's m

To take a photograph is to participate in another person's mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt.

Time

One can never ask anyone to change a feeling.

One can never ask anyone to change a feeling.

Life Love Inspirational Feelings

Though collecting quotations could be considered as merely a

Though collecting quotations could be considered as merely an ironic mimetism

Quotations

Tamed as it may be, sexuality remains one of the demonic for

Tamed as it may be, sexuality remains one of the demonic forces in human consciousness -- pushing us at intervals close to taboo and dangerous desires, which range from the impulse to commit sudden arbitrary violence upon another person to the voluptuous yearning for the extinction of one's consciousness, for death itself. Even on the level of simple physical sensation and mood, making love surely resembles having an epileptic fit at least as much as, if not more than, it does eating a meal or conversing with someone.

Sex

In the final analysis, style is art. And art is nothing more

In the final analysis, style is art. And art is nothing more or less than various modes of stylized, dehumanized representation.

Style

Science fiction films are not about science. They are about

Science fiction films are not about science. They are about disaster, which is one of the oldest subjects of art.

Science Fiction

Religion is probably, after sex, the second oldest resource

Religion is probably, after sex, the second oldest resource which human beings have available to them for blowing their minds.

Religion

One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. G

One set of messages of the society we live in is: Consume. Grow. Do what you want. Amuse yourselves. The very working of this economic system, which has bestowed these unprecedented liberties, most cherished in the form of physical mobility and material prosperity, depends on encouraging people to defy limits.

Society

I do not think white America is committed to granting equali

I do not think white America is committed to granting equality to the American Negro... this is a passionately racist country; it will continue to be so in the foreseeable future.

Racism

Fear of sexuality is the new, disease-sponsored register of

Fear of sexuality is the new, disease-sponsored register of the universe of fear in which everyone now lives.

Sex

Most people in this society who aren't actively mad are, at

Most people in this society who aren't actively mad are, at best, reformed or potential lunatics.

Society