Pablo Picasso? Gertrude Stein? Alice B. Toklas? Clement Greenberg? Victor Papanek? Edmund Wilson? Question for Quote Investigator: Creating innovative artworks is difficult, and pioneering artists face strong opposition. New music is deemed discordant and grating. New architecture is labeled misshapen and impractical. New paintings are considered ugly and maladroit. Apparently, a prominent painter once said: …
Tag Archives: Edmund Wilson
Quote Origin: All Art Is Propaganda
Upton Sinclair? W. E. B. Du Bois? George Orwell? George Bernard Shaw? Ann Petry? Morris Edmund Speare? Richard Hunt? Ludwig Lewisohn? Edmund Wilson? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Advocates often extoll their visions with strong-willed certainty. Insistent artists are accused of preaching and propagandizing. Yet, this criticism is sometimes provocatively embraced. Here are three assertions: …
Quote Origin: Writing Well Is the Best Revenge
Dorothy Parker? Susan Sontag? Alix Nelson? Ross Macdonald? Kenneth Millar? Tom Samet? Edmund Wilson? Anne Ruggles Gere? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Yesterday, while reading an acerbic episode within a stylish memoir I recalled the following adage: Writing well is the best revenge. These words are often credited to the famous wit Dorothy Parker, but …
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Quote Origin: Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?
Edmund Wilson? Agatha Christie? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The following acerbic remark has been used to dismiss the entire mystery genre as trivial and uninteresting: Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd? Would you please help me to find a citation for this remark? Reply from Quote Investigator: This interrogative statement is the title of …
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