Contrapposto Quotes

“Cricket wanted to tell him that Roulin had been one of two fathers he’d had, Carpenter being the second—how being a father could be done in a key moment or two, a few times holding the ladder while a young man climbs.”
― Dave Eggers, Contrapposto: A Novel

“But rarely did anything go to plan, and it was even rarer to have a work of art received as hoped. And so what was left? What was left, what was the only refuge, was the simple joy in creation. In making something appear. But Kyle was not joyful. And Olympia was not joyful. And the workers in the studio were there to pay for their lives outside the studio. And the billionaires who bought Kyle’s work were investors, not lovers. So together, everyone involved, from Cricket on up—they were all engaged in a kind of factory that made beautiful, unnecessary things that meant very little to anyone who made them.”
― Dave Eggers, Contrapposto: A Novel

“Beauty justifies itself!” Carpenter yelled. “There is a perfectly inverse relationship between talent and the need to explain itself. The artist’s only rational response to ‘Why did you make this?’ is ‘Because I wanted to’ or ‘Because it felt right.’ Everything else is sophistry!”
― Dave Eggers, Contrapposto: A Novel

“Every day in art should be like running down a hill, arms waving, shrieking.”
― Dave Eggers, Contrapposto: A Novel