Quote of the Day (Edward Hopper, on the Need to Paint)

“If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.” —American painter Edward Hopper (1882-1967), quoted in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations, edited by Connie Robertson (1998)'

The formal name of this 1925 painting by the great American painter of isolation and loneliness, Edward Hopper, was House by the Railroad.  

But most people are struck by its resemblance to an image from film: sinister Bates Hotel, in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 classic Psycho. Indeed, the cinema hotel was inspired by this Hopper painting—which, in turn, drew on a home in Haverstraw, N.Y.

Back to Hopper's quote--I'm not sure that words are sufficient to convey the lost history--and deeply uncertain prospects--in both House by the Railroad and Bates Hotel. Perhaps only silent, brooding images can do so...