"The imaginative artist willy-nilly influences his time. If he understands his responsibility and acts on it—taking the art seriously always, himself never quite—he can make a contribution equal to, if different from, that of the scientist, the politician, and the jurist. The anarchic artist so much in vogue now—asserting with vehemence and violence that he writes only for himself, grubbing in the worst seams of life—can do damage. But he can also be so useful in breaking up obsolete molds, exposing shams, and crying out the truth, that the broadest freedom of art seems to me necessary to a country worth living in."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
“An Exclusive Interview with Herman Wouk,” Kirk Polking, Writer’s Digest (September 1966).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Herman_Wouk
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Herman Wouk
Herman Wouk (May 27, 1915 – May 17, 2019) was an American novelist who wrote The Caine Mutiny (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1952), The Winds of War and War and Remembrance.
8 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Herman Wouk →
Related Quotes
"I felt there’s a wealth in Jewish tradition, a great inheritance. I’d be a jerk not to take advantage of it."
"I regard the writing of humor as a supreme artistic challenge."
"You can know almost anything about G-d, provided you put the right questions to Him. You have to learn how to put the…"
"We are in the black theater of nonexistence. In an eye blink the curtain is up, the stage ablaze, for the vast drama …"
"This is an excellent martini—sort of tastes like it isn’t there at all, just a cold cloud."
"There is a mystery about the Jews … and within this mystery lies the reason for the folk pride of the house of Abraha…"
"Deep in the heart of both critical Christian and alienated Jew, there is … a feeling, not even a feeling, a shadow of…"
"Would you end war? Create great Peace."
"To be a god First I must be a god-maker: We are what we create."
"Hearts starve as well as bodies: Give us Bread, but give us Roses."