Quotes About Expression

Painting is just another way of keeping a diary. PABLO PICASSO

Poetry often enters through the window of irrelevance. M. C. RICHARDS

The great acting coach Michael Chekhov advised his students, "If you want to work on your art, work on your life.

Why should we all use our creative power …? Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money. BRENDA UELAND

In a sense, as we are creative beings, our lives become our work of art.

Artists and intellectuals are not he same animal. This causes a great deal of confusion. Our schools teach educate us intellectually but not artistically. We learn to deconstruct art, not construct it.

Art lies in the moment of encounter: we meet ourselves and we meet our self-expression. We become original because we become something specific, an origin from which work flows.

Real" artists are people who have learned to create despite their fears. They

If we are invested in a writing life—as opposed to a writing career—then we are in it for the process and not the product.

Art? You just do it. MARTIN RITT

It's a luxury to be in the mood to write. It's a blessing but it's not a necessity. Writing is like breathing, it's possible to learn to do it well, but the point is to do it no matter what.

When we write from the inside out rather than the outside in, when we write about what most concerns us rather than about what we feel might sell, we often write so well and so persuasively that the market responds to our efforts.

Writing goes much better when we don't work at it so much. When we give ourselves permission to just hang out on the page.

The brain enjoys writing. It enjoys the act of naming things, the processes of association and discernment. Picking words is like picking apples: this one looks delicious.

You are likely to find yourself avoiding your artist dates. Recognize this resistance as a fear of intimacy—self-intimacy

the pain that underlies all pain: the pain that we are all, as Rilke phrases it, "unutterably alone.

Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness—I wouldn't know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness. AARON COPLAND All

The primary imagination I hold to be the Living Power. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

If we are interested in a writing life - as opposed to a writing career - then we are in it for the process and not the product - for the body of work and not for the quick hit of one well-realised piece.

As a rule of thumb, it is best to just admit that there is always one action you can take for your creativity daily.

Every child is born an artist. The trick is remaining one as an adult.

When people ask, "Why do we write morning pages?" I joke, "To get to the other side." They think I am kidding, but I'm not. Morning pages do get us to the other side: the other side of our fear, of our negativity, of our moods. Above all, they get us beyond our Censor. Beyond the reach of the Censor's babble we find our own quiet center, the place where we hear the still, small voice that is at once our creator's and our own.

Pages must be done longhand. The computer is fast—too fast for our purposes. Writing by computer gets you speed but not depth. Writing by computer is like driving a car at 85 mph. Everything is a blur. "Oh, my God, was that my exit?" Writing by hand is like going 35 mph. "Oh, look, here comes my exit. And look, it has a Sonoco station and a convenience store.

We forget that the imagination-at-play is at the heart of all good work.