"If I do something I think is new, it will be misunderstood, but if people like it, I will be disappointed because I haven't pushed them enough. The more people hate it, maybe the newer it is. Because the fundamental problem is that people are afraid of change."
–– Rei Kawakubo (b. 1942), Japanese fashion designer
"Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them."
–– Margaret Atwood (b. 1939), Canadian writer, environmental activist and inventor
"You have to sniff out joy. Keep your nose to the joy trail."
–– Buffy Sainte-Marie (b. 1941), American musician and social activist
"No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time; it is just that others are behind the times."
–– Martha Graham (1894-1991), American modern dancer and choreographer
"Now I think it's one of the most useless questions an adult can ask a child –– What do you want to be when you grow up? As if growing up is finite. As if at some point you become something and that's the end."
–– Michelle Obama, (b. 1964), American attorney, author, former First Lady of the United States (2009-2017), and first African-American to serve in this role
"Whenever you take a step forward, you are bound to disturb something."
–– Indira Gandhi (1917-1984), Indian politician and former Prime Minister of India
"Spend time reflecting on your emotional and physical existence and how that applies to the voice. You have to apply that wisdom and experience when you sing –– it's what comes through."
–– k. d. lang (b. 1961), Canadian singer-songwriter
"It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences."
–– Audre Lorde (1934-1992), American writer, feminist, civil rights activist and a self-described "black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet."
"Go into hard things quickly, eagerly, then retreat."
–– Miriam Toews (b. 1964), Canadian writer
via: All My Puny Sorrows
"Water does not resist. Water flows. When you plunge your hand into it, all you feel is a caress. Water is not a solid wall, it will not stop you. But water always goes where it wants to go, and nothing in the end can stand against it. Water is patient. Dripping water wears away a stone. Remember that, my child. Remember you are half water. If you can't go through an obstacle, go around it. Water does."
–– Margaret Atwood (b. 1939), Canadian writer, environmental activist and inventor
"Everyone's perspective of themselves and others is based on the limitations of their exposure."
–– Kamala Harris (b. 1964), American politician and attorney and the first female vice president in U.S. history
–– Kinnie Starr (b. 1970), Canadian Mohawk singer-songwriter.
Source: CBC Radio One Definitely Not the Opera interview, October 23, 2014.
"I daydream a lot –– that's how I get my ideas. If I'm sitting in a café, I'm not on my phone because I want to hear my mind. I think that those periods of small solitude that we are losing are so important."
–– Patti Smith (b. 1946), American writer, poet, singer-songwriter and musician
"I never thought I'd be successful. It seems in my own mind that in everything I've undertaken I've never quite made the mark. But I've always been able to put disappointments aside. Success isn't about the end result; it's about what you learn along the way."
–– Vera Wang (b. 1949), American fashion designer
"Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That's where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go."
–– Rebecca Solnit (b. 1961), American author
"People tend to forget their duties but remember their rights."
–– Indira Gandhi (1917-1984), Indian politician and former Prime Minister of India
"Things which do not grow and change are dead things."
–– Louise Erdrich (b. 1954), American Ojibwe writer and enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians
"Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart."
–– Robin Wall Kimmerer (b. 1953), American writer, ecologist, botanist, professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation
"At the end of the day, we can endure much more than we think we can."
–– Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Mexican painter
"If you have total freedom to design, you won't get anything interesting. So I give myself restraints in order to push myself through, to create something new. It's the torture I give myself, the pain and the struggle that I go through. So it's self-given, but that's the only way, I think, to make a strong, good new creation.
–– Rei Kawakubo (b. 1942), Japanese fashion designer
"You can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them."
–– Shonda Rhimes (b. 1970), American television writer, producer, and director
"A strong woman stands up for herself. A stronger woman stands up for everybody else." –– Unknown
via: The Globe and Mail, Saturday February 5, 2022, p. B27 (obituaries).
"There's something so beautiful about just working in silence, and not constantly posting and publishing and talking about what you're doing. This need to be out there all the time really is a sickness of our generation."
–– Lido Pimienta (b. 1986), Colombian-Canadian singer, producer, and visual artist
"If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough."
–– Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (b. 1938), Liberian politician and Africa's first female president
"I'd rather risk an ugly surprise than rely on things I know I can do."
–– Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011), American abstract expressionist painter
"I really think a champion is defined not by their wins but by how they recover when they fall."
–– Serena Williams (b. 1981), American professional tennis player
"You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down."
–– Toni Morrison (1931-2019), American novelist
from Song of Solomon
"Many artists live socially without disturbance to mind, but others must live the inner experience of mind, a solitary way of living."
–– Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Canadian-born American abstract painter
via Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 86
"Creating is a prayer comprised entirely of listening."
–– Anne Hines, Canadian writer and minister
Quote from Anne Hines. Parting Gifts: Notes on Loss, Love, and Life. 2009, p. 62.
via Sketchbook 11, 2010, p. 33
