Grotesque Quotes - Page 2

• Most of us have learned to be dispassionate about evil, to look it in the face and find, as often as not, our own grinning reflections with which we do not argue, but good is another matter. Few have stared at that long enough to accept that its face too is grotesque, that in us the good is something under construction. The modes of evil usually receive worthy expression. The modes of good have to be satisfied with a cliche or a smoothing down that will soften their real look.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Real, Reflection, Expression

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• To me the world seems grotesque, absurd, ridiculous, painful.

  Eugene Ionesco

  World, Ridiculous, Painful

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• This is the golden age of grotesque.

  Marilyn Manson

  Art, Media, Age

  Song: The Golden Age Of Grotesque, 2003

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• There is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no heaven, no hell. It is all a dream, a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought -a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering forlorn among the empty eternities!

  Mark Twain

  Dream, Lonely, Loneliness

  The Mysterious Stranger ch. 11 (1916)

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• The moment one of the people took one of the truths to himself, called it histruth, and tried to live his life by it, he became a grotesque and the truth he embraced a falsehood.

  Sherwood Anderson

  People, Moments, Falsehood

  1919 Winesburg, Ohio,'The Book of the Grotesque'.

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• In the beginning when the world was young there were a great many thoughts but no such thing as truth. Man made the truths himself and each truth was a composite of a great many vague thoughts. All about in the world were truths and they were all beautiful.

  Sherwood Anderson

  Men, People, World

  "Winesburg, Ohio" by Sherwood Anderson, ("The Book of the Grotesque"), 1919.

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• To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Hearing, Blind, Figures

  Flannery O'Connor (2012). “Flannery O'Connor: The Cartoons”, p.117, Fantagraphics Books

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• The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is being attacked, and every man will be glad of these conscience-soothing falsities

  Mark Twain

  War, Lying, Men

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• The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.

  Mark Twain

  Peace, Truth, Lying

  Mark Twain (2017). “The Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated Edition): Novels, Short Stories, Memoir, Travel Books, Letters, Biography, Articles & Speeches: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, Yankee in King Arthur's Court…”, p.2818, e-artnow

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• Whenever I’m asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we are still able to recognize one.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Writing, Southern, Able

  Flannery O'Connor (1969). “Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose”, p.44, Macmillan

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• Some couture collections have everything including the kitchen sink! Everything gets thrown on to make it look expensive.

  Alexander McQueen

  Kitchen, Looks, Couture

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• This is a valley of ashes--a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens; where ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and, finally, with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of gray cars crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak, and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-gray men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud, which screens their obscure operations from your sight.

  F. Scott Fitzgerald

  Moving, Men, Garden

  F. Scott Fitzgerald, Book House (2016). “F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Complete Novels (Book House)”, p.393, Book House

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• Where words leave off, gesture begins. Don't we speak of a person being speechless with rage, dancing with impatience, setting his teeth? The final motions of the soul are speechless, animal, grotesque, or of an incomparable beauty.

  Charlie Chaplin

  Animal, Dancing, Soul

  Charlie Chaplin, Kevin J. Hayes (2005). “Charlie Chaplin: Interviews”, p.81, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• You see we adults have learned how to disguise our terrible characters but a child... well, it's like a grotesque drawing of us. They should be neither seen nor heard. And no one must make another one.

  Gore Vidal

  Children, Character, Drawing

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• For me, the single word "God" suggests everything that is slippery, shady, squalid, foul, and grotesque.

  Andre Breton

  God, Religious, Shady

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• Some couture collections have everything including the kitchen sink! Everything gets thrown on to make it look expensive. I find it grotesque when clothes hit you in the face and there's no room for fault. But I don't expect to turn things around all by myself. I'm not a saint.

  Alexander McQueen

  Clothes, Kitchen, Saint

  "Remembering Alexander McQueen". Interview with Karl Plewka, www.interviewmagazine.com. April 1997.

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• The true grotesque being the expression of the repose or play of a serious mind, there is a false grotesque opposed to it, which is the result of the full exertion of a frivolous one.

  John Ruskin

  Expression, Play, Mind

  John Ruskin (2015). “The Stones of Venice”, p.244, John Ruskin

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• It’s a shameful moment for U.S. media when it insists on being subservient to the grotesque propaganda agencies of a violent, aggressive state.

  Noam Chomsky

  Agency, Media, Moments

  "Noam Chomsky on Media’s “Shameful Moment” in Gaza & How a U.S. Shift Could End the Occupation". "Democracy Now" with Amy Goodman, www.democracynow.org. August 11, 2014.

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• Anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.

  Flannery O'Connor

  Southern, Realistic, Cases

  "Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction" (1960)

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• The typical lawmaker of today is a man wholly devoid of principle - a mere counter in a grotesque and knavish game. If the right pressure could be applied to him, he would be cheerfully in favor of polygamy, astrology or cannibalism.

  H. L. Mencken

  Men, Astrology, Games

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.261, Vintage

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• I have to be careful to get out before I become the grotesque caricature of a hatchet-faced woman with big knockers.

  Jamie Lee Curtis

  Age, Bigs, Hatchet

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• I envy people who can just look at a sunset. I wonder how you can shoot it. There is nothing more grotesque to me than a vacation.

  Dustin Hoffman

  Sunset, Vacation, People

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• The way corporate media likes to portray America is as a homogenous whole that high-five's each other at the Super Bowl. But what we have is a grotesque disparity between the rich and poor that is only getting wider.

  Tom Morello

  Media, America, Way

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• Taxes are like abortion, and not just because both are grotesque procedures supported by Democrats. You're for them or against them. Taxes go up or down; government raises taxes or lowers them. But Democrats will not let the words "abortion" or "tax hikes" pass their lips.

  Ann Coulter

  Government, Abortion, Lips

  "Put the tax cut in a lock box" by Ann Coulter, townhall.com. February 21, 2002.

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• when the human race is not grotesque it is because it is asleep and losing its opportunity.

  Mark Twain

  Opportunity, Race, Losing

  Mark Twain (2013). “Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2: The Complete and Authoritative Edition”, p.127, Univ of California Press

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