Death of the Author/Quotes

"The birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author."

—Roland Barthes, "The Death of the Author"

"All worthy work is open to interpretations the author did not intend. Art isn't your pet -- it's your kid. It grows up and talks back to you."

—Joss Whedon

"As for our intentions, well, that's all bunk. We may intend our music for one person or another, but who's to say? I can't decide who reads my novel or buys my record. Look what that did for Jonathon Franzen, who snubbed Oprah for liking his book. It's an arrogant, imperialist motive to try to determine who will receive you and who won't."

—Sufjan Stevens, interview with Delusions of Adequacy

"The artist usually sets out -- or used to -- to point a moral and adorn a tale. The tale, however, points the other way, as a rule. Two blankly opposing morals, the artist's and the tale's. Never trust the artist. Trust the tale. The proper function of a critic is to save the tale from the artist who created it."

—D.H. Lawrence

"Book! you lie there; the fact is, you books must know your places. You'll do to give us the bare words and facts, but we come in to supply the thoughts."

—Herman Melville, Moby Dick

"...authors seldom understand what they write. That is why we have critics."

—James Hurst, on being asked what his short story "The Scarlet Ibis" was about.

"The critic on the morning paper said of my first play: "Inept." The critic on the afternoon paper said: "Drivel." Both reviews totally misunderstood the play. The critic on the morning paper said of my second play: "Pretentious." The critic on the afternoon paper said: "Abhorrent." Both reviews totally misunderstood the play. The critic on the morning paper said of my third play: "A Smash Hit!" The critic on the afternoon paper said: "A Triumph!" Both reviews totally misunderstood the play.
"They are now misunderstanding to my advantage. In the arts, that's known as success."

—Jules Feiffer cartoon.

King: I have nothing with this answer, Hamlet; these words are not mine.
Hamlet: No, nor mine now.

—William Shakespeare's Hamlet

"What it comes down to is my interpretation of my work is really immaterial. I'm not really a believer in art or music being institutionalized or put in galleries and stuff like that. I think art is something for the use of the public. It's for the public to interpret it, and to use it almost like a sustenance to life. It's the interpretation of the listener or the viewer which is all-important."

—David Bowie, in an interview on his concept album 1. Outside

"Rihanna said "People should not take the lyrics too literally. I don't think of it in a sexual way, I'm thinking metaphorically. It's more of a thing to say that people can talk about you, you just have to be that strong person who-" Oh, I'm not even going to dignify that. Yeah, and Let's Get It On is actually a protest song about the Vietnam war!"

—Todd in the Shadows, reviewing "S&M" by Rihanna

"I love it when someone tells ME what goes on in [Sword of the Stars]... I find it so educational."

—Martin "Mecron" Cirulis, designer of Sword of the Stars

"The beauty of music is that it's so open to the interpretation of the listener. I've said over and over again that the intent of the writer is so much less important than the interpretation of the listener."

—Michael Stipe, REM

"I’m absolutely sick of the differences between intention and interpretation. I want to create an art that is ideally shored. One that can’t be misunderstood any longer.
Not by the powers that want to see me jailed or by the fucking mice that pretend I’m doing something socially significant."

—Peter Sotos, Comfort & Critique

Some folks catch double-meanings when they're there...some don't...some find double meanings when they're not there. Art is a participatory sport.

—J. Michael Straczynski

There is a technical term for someone who confuses the opinions of a character in a book with those of the author. That term is 'idiot'.

—S. M. Stirling

I remember quite specifically that we had been touring the States on the strength of "These Eyes" and "Laughing" and "Undone". I don't even think "No Time" was out yet. And I noticed when we were in the States, the girls seemed to grow up faster. They started wearing more makeup and dressing more sensuously at a younger age. And then when I got back to Canada, it seemed that the girls weren't trying so hard to grow up so fast.
So what I was thinking was "Canadian woman, I prefer you." But what came out of my mouth was "American woman, stay away from me."
I wasn't thinking politically. I wasn't thinking about the Vietnam War — which at that time was at a particularly bad point of escalation, so people read a lot of their own meanings into those words. And what came out could have been construed as anti-American.
One way or the other, it caught the attention of the public and it got much bigger. Believe me, we didn't see that coming.

—Burton Cummings (frontman of The Guess Who), talking about "American Woman", q, May 8, 2020

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