There is the falsely mystical view of art that assumes a kind of supernatural inspiration, a possession by universal forces unrelated to questions of power and privilege or the artist's relation to bread and blood. In this view, the channel of art can only become clogged and misdirected by the artist's concern with merely temporary and local disturbances. The song is higher than the struggle.

Man is a substance clad in shadows.

John Sterling

It does not matter what the whip is; it is none the less a whip, because you have cut thongs for it out of your own souls.

John Ruskin

The history of all countries shows that the working class exclusively by its own effort is able to develop only trade-union consciousness.

Vladimir Lenin

With any work worth its salt, you have to trust the author enough to take its measure. And if you apply too many preconceptions, you are not taking its measure.

Art Spiegelman

The truth needs so little rehearsal.

Barbara Kingsolver

It's kind of amazing how popular 'Grey's Anatomy' is. What other show can boast such an annoyingly sincere cast of doctors, sniveling through such perfunctory love triangles?

Rob Sheffield

Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's scepter, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfactorily to myself but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.

Henry David Thoreau

The True Artist has the planet for his pedestal; the adventurer, after years of strife, has nothing broader than his shoes.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?

Mahatma Gandhi

You don't grow up in our neck of the woods believing that someone can outwork you.

Joseph Parkinson

I looked at longevity in show business when I was about 13, and the people who seemed to have longevity were the ones who'd spent quite a bit of time learning about what they were doing before they made it.

Paul Merton