The main meaning of art lies in the reproduction of life and in pronouncing a verdict on its phenomena.
The merit of an artistic work is ultimately determined by the weight of its content.
Poetic things, artistic things in general, always tell something, because they always express something...
Art begins when man revives in him feelings and thoughts tried under the influence of the surrounding reality and gives them a particular expression in images...
It is understood that in most cases he does this in order to convey to other people what he thinks and feels. Art is a social phenomenon.
The art of any people is ... always in the closest causal connection with its economy.
The artistic work cannot exist without a content of ideas. Even the things whose authors value only the form and do not care about the content still express in one way or another a determined idea... But when a false idea is placed at the foundation of the work of art, it creeps into the work such contradictions internal, so that the aesthetic merit of the work suffers as a result... No artist can transform into truth what constitutes its direct opposite.
Where there is no real life, the task of poetry is to create an ideal life.
The inclination towards art for art's sake arises and is strengthened where there is an irreconcilable misunderstanding between art people and the surrounding social environment. This misunderstanding reflects advantageously on artistic creation insofar as it helps artists to rise above their environment.
I know very well that no artist is responsible for the meaning of the speeches of his heroes. Quite often, however, he gives some indication of his attitude towards these speeches, and as a result we can make up our own minds about his own beliefs.
Art, this light and beautiful smoke of living, lasts for ages and is the only business card that a nation can present at the gate of eternity.
Great literature is nothing but language loaded with meaning to the highest possible degree.
A country that does not know how to defend its "poets" will be defeated or will survive miserably at the tail of other nations, because poetry is the blood of a people that flows underground through the ages and makes it immortal.
It is just as fatal to write a book as are the other phenomena of existence: births, deaths, accidents, and on a larger scale, of course, social earthquakes. People need to take cognizance of their deeds, it's a law of modern times, which first appeared with the ancient Greeks. And often this law sacrifices one to tell them.
Isn't artistic creation one of the most energetic responses that man gives to the cursed insoluble problem? Do we not admire in her our victory over death? Doesn't the artist stop the moment, immortalizing it and giving us, who contemplate it materialized, the thrill of immortality, first experienced by him?
What is a book if not a good friend you can talk to anytime in the solitude of your room?
The act of creation is the result of the secret inner life of the writer; it is no longer known, and he no longer knows exactly, if what he tells really happened to him, if he only imagined it, it is a mixture of real facts and inventions. It is impossible to draw a line between the imaginary life, created and expressed in a book, and that lived by the writer.
Why would a writer be great if he is not original and has not discovered anything?
The writer must not leave the man, even if the man, fed up with his own deeds, would not like to put a mirror in front of him and see his face.
Art...an idealized representation of nature and ourselves, with a view to the physical and moral improvement of our species.
For the writer, style is not a matter of technique, but of worldview.
A long time must pass before we recognize in the physiognomy of a writer the model which bears the name of "great talent," in our museum of general ideas.
We all stand before the novelist as slaves before the emperor: with a single word he can set us free. Thanks to him, we lose our old condition, to know that of the general, the weaver, the singer, the country gentleman, to know the rustic life, the game, the hunt, the hatred, the love...
Literature:... projection on an imaginary plane of real human activity.
The road to feeling goes through intelligence (when it comes to literature)... I will not judge the poetic value of the poem by the material used to produce my poetic state, but by the intensity of this state.
I want every page of literature to develop my personality, to stabilize my attitude towards the outside world... I want every thought to be a feeling, every feeling to be imprinted... in my being.
By purpose, art becomes social, because it addresses the public, and by origin, it is already social, because the education of the artist can only be that of the environment in which he lives...
Here, then, the artist, although a passionate amateur of specificity, cannot completely refrain from expressing through his work the general... But, ... the artist cannot use expressions valid for any society, he cannot be completely universal ... If it were so, it would lose its particularity, its originality. Art would turn into science, expression would become a mathematical formula…
The novel is the story of the life and soul of the most characteristic private individuals. Public individuals are captured by history and mythology. The novel only appears in such a differentiated society where every man is an individuality in his own way.
Literature fills in what society lacks, fills gaps, balances aspirations.