But why, why, why can't people just say what they mean?
Nobody ever completely means what they say. Even when they think they're telling the truth, there's always something hidden behind their words.
Even though Prince wasn't rapping and it was a whole different era, it shows how artists expressed themselves without saying too much, and that was the real beauty of the art.
I never have tantrums. If anything makes me mad, I'm silent. If I'm not talking, leave me alone.
I do tend to drape my real feelings with pretty words and different layers and stuff.
In life, people talk at right angles. One asks a question, and the other replies in part, then uses that part to move the conversation to something else. Everyone has an agenda, has something they're trying to say - or not say.
Sometimes that's the only way I exist, talking to people through pop culture.
My younger sister looks to me to provide her with advice on how to do her job better - though she's too shy to ask me questions, so I have to give her my opinion on an unsolicited basis.
When you are describing, A shape, or sound, or tint; Don't state the matter plainly, But put it in a hint; And learn to look at all things, With a sort of mental squint.
Spiritual teaching must always be by symbols.
The Japanese tend to communicate via nuance and euphemism, often leaving important things unsaid; whereas Americans tend to think they're being subtle when they refrain from grabbing the listener by the shirt.
The problem with me is, I guess, the way I express myself, you have to be with me 50 years before you can get a sense of what I'm talking about.
Men huddle in a corner and talk about me, rather than walking up to me and chatting me up.
I believe in talking behind peoples' backs. That way, they hear it more than once.
Your job as a writer is to find storylines, narrative structures, and characters to show the things that you believe rather than saying them or telling them.
If you can't be kind, at least be vague.
I usually don't like to 'spoon feed' my audience, because I grew up idolizing story tellers who tell stories using symbolism, so it was in my nature to do the same.
Over the years, things got so bad between my mother and I, we stopped talking to each other and started communicating by putting Ann Landers articles on the refrigerator.
You may be right,' she said, a phrase which here meant 'I’m wrong, but I don’t have the courage to say so.
...the best figurative poetry speaks not to the frivolous intellect, but (if anything does) straight to the heart; and does it better than plain prose. There seems then to be something which is better said with metaphor than without, which goes straighter to its mark by going crooked, and hits its aim exactly by flying off at tangents.
Poetry is a kind of distilled insinuation. It's a way of expanding and talking around an idea or a question. Sometimes, more actually gets said through such a technique than a full frontal assault.
In a way song writing can almost be detrimental, because suddenly you find an outlet that is a kind of cheating. You don't need to have direct communication. You can say, 'I can't describe it to you, but I will record it and send it to you.'
A friend of mine tells that I talk in shorthand and then smudge it.
The challenge was that it was harder to be subtle than strident.
I say things, but I say them indirectly. At the same time, I try to make my images as direct as possible.
