Art is moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.

Meaning of the quote

Art is a combination of having strong beliefs and beliefs about what is right and wrong, paired with making it enjoyable for people to experience. If you have strong beliefs but don't make it fun, it's just propaganda. And if you make something fun but don't have those strong beliefs, then it's just television without any deeper meaning.

About Rita Mae Brown

Rita Mae Brown is an American feminist writer known for her coming-of-age novel, Rubyfruit Jungle. She was active in civil rights campaigns and criticized the marginalization of lesbians within feminist groups. Brown received the Lambda Literary Awards’ Pioneer Award for lifetime achievement in 2015.

More about the author

More quotes from Rita Mae Brown

You sell a screenplay like you sell a car. If someone drives it off a cliff, that’s it.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

If the world were a logical place, men would ride side-saddle.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Every action is either strong or weak, and when every action is strong we are successful.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

A life of reaction is a life of slavery, intellectually and spiritually. One must fight for a life of action, not reaction.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

I believe you are your work. Don’t trade the stuff of your life, time, for nothing more than dollars. That’s a rotten bargain.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Pornography exists for the lonesome, the ugly, the fearful – it’s made for the losers.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

As a woman, I find it very embarrassing to be in a meeting and realize I’m the only one in the room with balls.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

I believe the true function of age is memory. I’m recording as fast as I can.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Intuition is a suspension of logic due to impatience.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Divorce is the one human tragedy that reduces everything to cash.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

I finally figured out the only reason to be alive is to enjoy it.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Good judgment comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgment.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

The statistics on sanity are that one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think of your three best friends. If they’re okay, then it’s you.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Language exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

A peacefulness follows any decision, even the wrong one.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Leroy bet me I couldn’t find a pot of gold at the end, and I told him that was a stupid bet because the rainbow was enough.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Education is a wonderful thing. If you couldn’t sign your name you’d have to pay cash.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Writers will happen in the best of families.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Humor comes from self-confidence.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Morals are private. Decency is public.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Recognition of function always precedes recognition of being.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Art is moral passion married to entertainment. Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

The only queer people are those who don’t love anybody.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

You can’t be truly rude until you understand good manners.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

I became a lesbian because of women, because women are beautiful, strong, and compassionate.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

To love without role, without power plays, is revolution.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Women who love women are Lesbians. Men, because they can only think of women in sexual terms, define Lesbian as sex between women.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it’s better than no inspiration at all.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

I believe in a lively disrespect for most forms of authority.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Don’t ask to live in tranquil times. Literature doesn’t grow there.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

I am a comic writer, which means I get to slay the dragons, and shoot the bull.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist

Virginia Woolf said that writers must be androgynous. I’ll go a step further. You must be bisexual.

Rita Mae Brown

novelist, poet, screenwriter, activist