John Berger quotes - page 3

Publicity is the life of this culture - in so far as without publicity capitalism could not survive - and at the same time publicity is its dream. (John Berger)
A drawing is essentially a private work, related only to the artist's own needs; a 'finished' statue or canvas is essentially a public, presented work - related far more directly to the demands of communication. View quote
John Berger
Never chain your dogs together with sausages. One must accustom one's self to be bored. View quote
John Berger
Propaganda requires a permanent network of communication so that it can systematically stifle reflection with emotive or utopian slogans. Its pace is usually fast. View quote
John Berger
As Nelson Mandela has pointed out, boycott is not a principle, it is a tactic depending upon circumstances. A tactic which allows people, as distinct from their elected but often craven governments, to apply a certain pressure on those wielding power in what they, the boycotters, consider to be an unjust or immoral way. View quote
John Berger
The human imagination... has great difficulty in living strictly within the confines of a materialist practice or philosophy. It dreams, like a dog in its basket, of hares in the open. View quote
John Berger
It can happen that a book, unlike its authors, grows younger as the years pass. View quote
John Berger
One can say of language that it is potentially the only human home, the only dwelling place that cannot be hostile to man. View quote
John Berger
Emigration, forced or chosen, across national frontiers or from village to metropolis, is the quintessential experience of our time. View quote
John Berger
Painting is something that you need to do, if not every day, then certainly most days. It is almost like being a pianist: if you stop, you lose something. View quote
John Berger
I wanted to write about looking at the world, so it's more about helping people, or persuading people, to see what is around us; both the marvellous and the terrible. (John Berger)
'Fahrenheit 9/11' is astounding. Not so much as a film - although it is cunning and moving - but as an event. View quote
John Berger
The autobiographical doesn't interest me. I could think of few things less interesting than rooting about in my life. View quote
John Berger
Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world; we explain that world with words, but words can never undo the fact that we are surrounded by it. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. View quote
John Berger
What do these conventions mean? What does a nude signify? It is not sufficient to answer these questions merely in terms of the art-form, for it is quite clear that the nude also relates to lived sexuality. To be naked is to be oneself. To be nude is to be seen naked by others and yet not recognized for oneself. A naked body has to be seen as an object in order to become a nude. (The sight of it as an object stimulates the use of it as an object.) Nakedness reveals itself. Nudity is placed on display. To be naked is to be without disguise. To be on display is to have the surface of one's own skin, the hairs of one's own body, turned into a disguise which, in that situation, can never be discarded. The nude is condemned to never being naked. Nudity is a form of dress. View quote
John Berger