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 BERGERPublicity 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 BERGERFanaticism comes from any form of chosen blindness accompanying the pursuit of a single dogma.
JOHN BERGERThe relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. Each evening we see the sun set.
JOHN BERGERJapanese art looked closely around screens; Italian Renaissance art surveyed conquered nature through the window or door-frame of a palace.
JOHN BERGERA 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.
JOHN BERGERTo remain innocent may also be. to remain ignorant.
JOHN BERGERFor the artist, drawing is discovery. And that is not just a slick phrase; it is quite literally true.
JOHN BERGERI use charcoal a lot. Partly because it has such a fantastic range but also because it is very easy to erase.
JOHN BERGERAs Nelson Mandela has pointed out, boycott is not a principle, it is a tactic depending upon circumstances.
JOHN BERGERYour lips, beloved, are like a honeycomb: honey and milk are under the tongue. And the smell of your clothes is like the smell of my home.
JOHN BERGERThe essence of songs is neither vocal nor cerebral but organic.
JOHN BERGERThe happiness of being envied is glamour. Being envied is a solitary form of reassurance. It depends precisely upon not sharing your experience with those who envy you.
JOHN BERGERA cigarette is a breathing space. It makes a parenthesis.
JOHN BERGERThe surveyor of woman in herself is male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object – and most particularly an object of vision: a sight.
JOHN BERGERDrawing is a way of coming upon the connection between things, just like metaphor in poetry reconnects what has become separated.
JOHN BERGERIt is not an art of the princes or the bourgeoisie. It is popular and vagrant. In the sky of the cinema people learn what they might have been and discover what belongs to them apart from their single lives.
JOHN BERGER