List of John Berger Quotes

The Collaboration Which Sometimes Follows Is Seldom Based On Good Will: Usually On Desire, Rage, Fear, Pity Or Longing. The Modern Illusion Concerning Painting (which Post-modernism Has Done Nothing To Correct) Is That The Artist Is The Creator. Rather He Is A Reciever. What Seems Like Creaton Is The Act Of Giving Form To What He Has Recieved.

Every City Has A Sex And Age Which Have Nothing To Do With Demography.

We Live In A Dominant Culture Of Ceaseless Departure And Progress That Has So Far Lasted Two Or Three Centuries.

'fahrenheit 9/11' Is Astounding. Not So Much As A Film - Although It Is Cunning And Moving - But As An Event.

The Autobiographical Doesn't Interest Me. I Could Think Of Few Things Less Interesting Than Rooting About In My Life.

Malevich, Lissitsky, Kandinsky, Tatlin, Pevsner, Rodchenko... All Believed In The Social Role Of Art... Their Works Were Like Hinged Doors, Connecting Activity With Activity. Art With Engineering; Music With Painting; Poetry With Design; Fine Art With Propaganda; Photographs With Typography; Diagrams With Action; The Studio With The Street.

The Media Network Has Its Idols, But Its Principal Idol Is Its Own Style Which Generates An Aura Of Winning And Leaves The Rest In Darkness. It Recognizes Neither Pity Nor Pitilessness.

Directors Like Satyajit Ray, Rossellini, Bresson, Buñuel, Forman, Scorsese, And Spike Lee Have Used Non-professional Actors Precisely In Order That The People We See On The Screen May Be Scarcely More Explained Than Reality Itself. Professionals, Except Fo The Greatest, Usually Play Not Just The Necessary Role, But An Explanation Of The Role.

When A Painter Is Working He Is Aware Of The Means Which Are Available To Him - These Include His Materials, The Style He Inherits, The Conventions He Must Obey, His Prescribed Or Freely Chosen Subject Matter - As Constituting Both An Opportunity And A Restraint.

Sometimes, Because Of Its Immediacy, Television Produces A Kind Of Electronic Parable. Berlin, For Instance, On The Day The Wall Was Opened. Rostropovich Was Playing His Cello By The Wall That No Longer Cast A Shadow, And A Million East Berliners Were Thronging To The West To Shop With An Allowance Given Them By West German Banks! At That Moment The Whole World Saw How Materialism Had Lost Its Awesome Historic Power And Become A Shopping List.

So Time Doesn't Count, And Place Does?' I Said This To Tease Her. When I Was A Man, I Liked Teasing Her And She Went Along With It, Consenting, For It Reminded Us Both Of A Sadness That Had Passed.

Today The Discredit Of Words Is Very Great. Most Of The Time The Media Transmit Lies. In The Face Of An Intolerable World, Words Appear To Change Very Little. State Power Has Become Congenitally Deaf, Which Is Why But The Editorialists Forget It Terrorists Are Reduced To Bombs And Hijacking.