The importance to the writer of first writing must be out of all proportion of the actual value of what is written.
I always try to keep a positive perspective on what's valuable and the importance of restricting that immediate gratification and, most importantly, that who you are isn't the stuff you have.
It is worthwhile adding that the power of the poem to teach not only sensibilities and the subtle movements of the spirit but knowledge, real lasting felt knowledge, is going mostly unnoticed among our scholars. The body of knowledge locked into and releasable from poetry can replace practically any university in the Republic. First things first, then: the primal importance of a poem is what it can add to the individual mind. Poetry is the voice of a poet at its birth, and the voice of a people in its ultimate fulfillment as a successful and useful work of art.
Gradually,. . . the aspect of science as knowledge is being thrust into the background by the aspect of science as the power of manipulating nature. It is because science gives us the power of manipulating nature that it has more social importance than art. Science as the pursuit of truth is the equal, but not the superior, of art. Science as a technique, though it may have little intrinsic value, has a practical importance to which art cannot aspire.
A writer writes a book. People read it. You don't know what they're reading, really. You read a review and think, "That is so inaccurate. You can't have been reading my book with any kind of attention, because that is all wrong, that's even the wrong name you're including there. " But these reviewers have been diminished in importance, the work is so little respected. If you're reviewed by a real critic, by James Wood or Louis Menand, then you get something that is informed, interesting, and highly articulate. But the average review doesn't have that kind of depth anymore.
A father's calling is eternal and its importance transcends time. It is a calling for both time and eternity.
The only incontrovertible fact of my work is the importance of life.
The 'free-floating intellectual' may occupy himself with problems because of their inherent interest and importance, perhaps to little effect.
The importance of the assistant director cannot be overemphasized.
To love someone is to show to them their beauty, their worth and their importance.
I believe in the utmost importance of one human being's actions toward another. This is actually what I believe in. How we handle one another, that's what makes us feel isolated, feel like outsiders sometimes. These questions are overwhelming. "What do you do in this world?" I believe in that more than anything.
When will the world learn that a million men are of no importance compared with one man?
I'm dealing with the most important things there are: life and nature. If this doesn't work, if this doesn't sustain me, I can't go back to nature. I'm right there. There's nowhere to go, and that frightens me.
My films are of paramount importance to me, the same as my family. That's not going to change. This is a balance I have to strike throughout my life.
But you have to understand that I consider myself a very modest artist, or whatever, and not of importance really at all - it is quite embarrassing to me to be asked my opinion about things. I am only a wee Scottish poet on the outside of everything.
My wife taught me the importance of living well.
A day without morning and evening prayers and personal intercessions is actually a day without meaning or importance.
The importance of poetry is not measured, finally, by what the poet says but by how he says it.
Each nation has a theme: everything else is secondary. India's theme is religion.
The word 'art' is very slippery. It really has no importance in relation to one's work. I work for the pleasure, for the pleasure of the work, and everything else is a matter for the critics.