270 Quotes by John Berger

A drawing is essentially a private work, related only to the artist’s own needs; a ‘finished’ statue or canvas is essentially a public, presented work – related far more directly to the demands of communication.

Advertising is not merely an assembly of competing messages; it is a language itself which is always being used to make the same general proposal.

Their space has absolutely nothing in common with that of a stage. When experts pretend that they can see here ‘the beginnings of perspective’, they are falling into a deep, anachronistic trap. Pictorial systems of perspective are architectural and urban – depending upon the window and the door. Nomadic ‘perspective’ is about coexistence, not about distance.

Words are so often used in the opposite sense, as a screen of diversion. It’s the struggle towards truthfulness which is the same whether one is writing a poem, a novel or an argument.

Men watch. Women watch themselves being watched.

She was now the center of what surrounded her. All that was not her made space for her.

This is written in the night. In war the dark is on nobody’s side, in love the dark confirms that we are together.

History always constitutes the relation between a present and its past. Consequently fear of the present leads to mystification of the past.

Publicity has another social function. The fact that this function has not been planned as a purpose by those make and use publicity in no way lessens its significance. Publicity turns consumption into a substitute for democracy.