I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.
Art historians agree that Da Vinci's paintings contain hidden levels of meaning that go well beneath the surface of the paint. Many scholars believe his work intentionally provides clues to a powerful secret... a secret that remains protected to this day by a clandestine brotherhood of which Da Vinci was a member.
Jihad is holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam, meaning to purify oneself or one's community.
I think essentially the meaning of life is probably the journey and not really any one thing or an outcome or a result. I think it's kinda the process and I think that if you can find happiness in the process then maybe that's it.
I guess I'm attracted to more archaic words because they can be imbued with more meaning, because their definition is elusive.
Autobiography is awfully seductive; it's wonderful. Once I got into it, I realized I was following a tradition established by Frederick Douglass - the slave narrative - speaking in the first-person singular, talking about the first-person plural, always saying 'I,' meaning 'we.'
You can't do business with a man who doesn't know the meaning of a contract. You can't do business with a firm who swears they'll do one thing one day and does just the opposite the next. You can't do business with a company who takes your goods on a cash basis and then pays you off in bum harmonicas.
I know exactly what my values are and what I love to do. That's worth additional years right there. I say no to a lot of stuff that would be easy money but deviates from my meaning of life.
There's something so wonderful about writing in rhyme where it isn't just the meaning of the words, it's the music to the words and the shape and the sound.
Now, to describe the process of the Wrapped Reichstag, which went from 1971 to '95, there is an entire book about that, because each one of our projects has its own book. The book is not an art book, meaning it's not written by an art historian.
I think we spend so much of our lives trying to pretend that we know what's going to happen next. In fact we don't. To recognize that we don't know even what will happen this afternoon and yet having the courage to move forward - that's one meaning of faith.
BASE jumping is skydiving from fixed objects, like buildings, antennae, bridges and earth - meaning mountains, cliffs. It's for sure - for me - it's the ultimate feeling of being in free fall, with all the visual references.
If, you know, all your life you're making films or whatever, and somehow along the way you lose meaning in whatever you're doing when you're making the films, they're just not the same as they used to be to you. That doesn't mean your life is over; it just means maybe go try to live a different life.
Changes in our aesthetic tastes have no value or meaning in and of themselves; what has value and meaning is the idea of change itself. Or, better stated: not change in and of itself, but change as an agent or inspiration of modern creations.
I was looking for what the meaning of life was.
People are so used to reading novels now, they just read a poem straight through to get the meaning. And that's something totally different from the slow way you read something if it's a tune; which to me a poem has to be.
A metaphysical tour de force of untethered meaning and involuting interlocking contrapuntal rhythms, 'The Clock' is more than a movie or even a work of art. It is so strange and other-ish that it becomes a stream-of-consciousness algorithm unto itself - something almost inhuman.
Tarots tell different sides of the various personalities that exist in all of us. I find it fascinating how they combine names, images, and numbers. You don't need to be able to read them, or know their real meaning, to be charmed.
People might say paper is dead or dying, but actually, it's not at all. It's just more rarified. The choice to send paper has more meaning because of the fact that you don't have to.
I accept that there are multitudes seeking God, seeking meaning, and so on, but if they reject atheism, I would rather they became modern-day Catholics or Jews than that they became Muslims.
When I take a risk, I like it to be a calculated risk, meaning I make it as small as possible.
Meaning is something we experience more than we attain. It's like finding a nice, easy current in a river that carries you through life.
It is a very serious consideration for a lyricist to step in there and suggest the meaning to a song. The music is speaking for itself.
If all countries are exceptional, the word loses its meaning.
We need to rediscover the essence of the meaning of 'the use.' Architecture is, above all, here for a better living. Every gesture, every shape must be justified by various reasons that would reinforce their reason to be, their use, and will give more sense to their beauty.
We look for meaning and purpose; children bring that.
There is something like an explosion in the meaning of certain words: they have a greater value than their meaning in the dictionary.
Be able to describe anything visual, such as a street scene, in words that convey your meaning.
Myths are stories that express meaning, morality or motivation. Whether they are true or not is irrelevant.
Magical realism allows an artist like myself to inject layers of meaning without being obvious. In American culture, where there is freedom of expression, this approach may seem forced, unnecessary and misunderstood. But this system of communication has become very Iranian.
According to scholars of linguistics, the relation between a word and its meaning is arbitrary.
During the '70s I was interested in words and meaning as a way of making art.
'A League of Their Own' had some special meaning for me, I guess - it's about women joining together and being empowered, but also about sisters sticking together even when there's drama and struggles. I'm really close to my two sisters and my brother, so I liked that about it.
I am attracted by almost any French word - written or spoken. Before I knew its meaning, I thought 'saucisson' so exquisite that it seemed the perfect name to give a child - until I learned it meant 'sausage!'
I owe thanks to a thoughtful, sophisticated readership hungry for challenging subject matter, for honest portrayals of parenthood, and for fiction whose meaning is neither obvious nor morally pat.
The funny thing is that when you have any form of presentation to your band, meaning you have the foresight to see outside of your creativity, you have a bigger vision.
