Quotes About Inspiration

Follow the music of your steps, and when the lights go out Don't whistle—sing.

You are making music in the shadow of the gallows.

was it Martin Luther who told of a time when he was focused intently on the person and work of Christ? The Holy Spirit was there as if in the form of a dove, gently alight on his shoulder, and when Luther turned his attention to the Spirit and away from Christ, the dove flew away. This story may go too far in the other direction, but I believe it contains at least a modest lesson

And if you think about it, pretty much everything that made the twentieth century bearable was invented in a California garage: the Apple computer, the Boogie Board, and gangster rap.

I rationalized that there are only so many notes and therefore only so many combination of notes, so it stood to reason that there are so many songs.

It'd taken only a few hours, but I felt like Michelangelo staring at the Sistine Chapel after four years of hard labor, like Banksy after spending six days searching the Internet for ideas to steal and three minutes of sidewalk vandalism to execute them.

In school, whenever I had to do something like memorize the periodic table, my father would say the key to doing boring tasks is to think about not so much what you're doing but the importance of why you're doing it. Though when I asked him if slavery wouldn't have been less psychologically damaging if they'd thought of it as "gardening," I got a vicious beating that would've made Kunta Kinte wince.

It's funny I want to write a poem.

The real question is not where do ideas come from but where do they go.

De zee is blauw, het bos is groen

This withdrawal from the day's turmoil into creative silence is not a luxury, a fad, or a futility. It is a necessity, because it tries to provide the conditions wherein we are able to yield ourselves to intuitive leadings, promptings, warnings, teachings, and counsels and also to the inspiring peace of the soul. It dissolves mental tensions and heals negative emotions.

It is often advisable to be one's own guide, studying worthy books, using prayer and reflection, and following the intuitive guidance of one's Higher Self.

Experience shows that if a sufficiently deep level--not necessarily the deepest level but one that corresponds to what the yogis call savikalpa samadhi, which is not as deep as nirvikalpa--if that can be attained and then prolonged sufficiently in time, an artist or a writer can draw from the experience creative power for his work.

No sermon I have heard or read touched my heart with half the force of this puppet show. John Quincy Adams

My nervous system is enfeebled, only work in oils can sustain me.

Painting from nature is not copying the object it is realizing one's sensations.

The day is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed [in a painting], will set off a revolution.

I lack the magnificent richness of color that animates nature.

An art which isn't based on feeling isn't an art at all.

Don't be an art critic. Paint. There lies salvation.

When I judge art, I take my painting and put it next to a God made object like a tree or flower. If it clashes, it is not art.

The truth is in nature, and I shall prove it.

I have nothing to hide in art. The initial force alone can bring anyone to the end he must attain.

I am more a friend of art than a producer of painting.