John Berger Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

“The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich.”

“Drawing is a way of coming upon the connection between things, just like metaphor in poetry reconnects what has become separated.”

“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.”

“When we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story's voice makes everything its own.”

“A peasant becomes fond of his pig and is glad to salt away its pork. What is significant, and is so difficult for the urban stranger to understand, is that the two statements are connected by an and not by a but.”

“Autobiography begins with a sense of being alone. It is an orphan form.”

“Emigration, forced or chosen, across national frontiers or from village to metropolis, is the quintessential experience of our time.”

“Words are so often used in the opposite sense, as a screen of diversion. It's the struggle towards truthfulness which is the same whether one is writing a poem, a novel or an argument.”

“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.”

“For the artist, drawing is discovery. And that is not just a slick phrase; it is quite literally true.”