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A work of art is somehow organic, and to slash a painting or smash a statue is not just an offence against property: it is an offence against life.

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What's all this about sin, eh?''That,' I said, very sick. 'Using Ludwig van like that. He did no harm to anyone. Beethoven just wrote music.' And then...more

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That's the law, son. But you were never much of a one for following the law.

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Of course it was horrible,' smiled Dr. Branom. 'Violence is a very horrible thing. That's what you're learning now. Your body is learning it.

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The old days are dead and gone days. For what I did in the past I have been punished. I have been cured.

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Our subject is, you see, impelled towards the good by, paradoxically, being impelled towards evil. The intention to act violently is accompanied by st...more

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And what, brothers, I had to escape into sleep from then was the horrible and wrong feeling that it was better to get the hit than give it. If that ve...more

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You've sinned, I suppose, but your punishment has been out of all proportion. They have turned you into something other than a human being. You have n...more

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Senseless violence is a prerogative of youth, which has much energy but little talent for the constructive.

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Literature is the aesthetic exploitation of language

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Look, I don't see why bad artists - I mean artists who are obviously incompetent... - why they should be presented hypocritically as good artists just...more