What is your opinon of this quotation?

Robert spoke of this recently. I have to agree with Truman Capote. Although I might quibble with his use of the word 'laws'

A poem does have depth and width, light and shade. It has more than that though, we (the readers) take the words and create our own mind pictures...bringing to the poem our individual experiences....unlike a painting which stays within the frame and contains the exact image created by the painter.

However, I exclude impressionist painters from my statement as I feel their creations come closest to what a poem can be.

Hi there!

It's really hard to comment on a quote when it's taken out of context. This particular quote comes from an interview Capote did for The Paris Review. Here is that section of the interview in its entirety:

INTERVIEWER: Are there devices one can use in improving one's technique?

CAPOTE: Work is the only device I know of. Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade, just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, fine. If not, learn them. Then rearrange the rules to suit yourself. Even Joyce, our most extreme disregarder, was a superb craftsman; he could write Ulysses because he could write Dubliners. Too many writers seem to consider the writing of short stories as a kind of finger exercise. Well, in such cases, it is certainly only their fingers they are exercising.

In this particular case, I would agree wholeheartedly with what Capote has said. We all have our individual writing styles that change as we become more experienced writers. It's kind of the belief that you need to learn to crawl before you can walk. Then again, it's hard to take Capote seriously because he said so many ridiculous things throughout his life as a comedian.

I hope that answers your question.

Have a good one.

To write well you have to think it through just like painting and writing music

These laws are what make a story beautiful or boring.