Quotes: Louise Erdrich

"To sew is to pray. Men don't understand this. They see the whole but they don't see the stitches. They don't see the speech of the creator in the work of the needle. We mend. We women turn things inside out and set things right. We salvage what we can of human garments and piece the rest into blankets. Sometimes our stitches stutter and slow. Only a woman's eye can tell. Other times, the tension in the stitches might be too tight because of tears, but only we know what emotion went into the making. Only women can hear the prayer. 

–– Louise Erdrich (b. 1954), American Ojibwe writer and enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians 

Source: Louise Erdrich. Four Souls. 2017.

Quotes: Rainer Maria Rilke

"God speaks to each of us as he makes us, 

then walks with us silently out of the night. 

These are the words we dimly hear: 

You, sent out, beyond your recall,

go to the limits of your longing. 

Embody me. 

Flare up like flame 

and make big shadows that I can move in. 

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. 

Just keep going. No feeling is final. 

Don't let yourself lose me. 

Nearby is the country they call life. 

You will know it by its seriousness. 

Give me your hand."

Book of Hours I 59

–– Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist 

via: Sketchbook A, 2015, p. 23

Quotes: Alexis de Tocqueville

"The desire of acquiring the comforts of the world haunts the imagination of the poor, and the dread of losing them that of the rich." 

–– Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859), French historian, diplomat, political scientist, political philosopher, and aristocrat 

via: Sketchbook A, 2015, p. 20

Quotes: Sydney Harris

"The good person loves people and uses things, while the bad person loves things and uses people." 

–– Sydney Harris (b. 1917-1986), American writer

via Sketchbook A, 2015, p. 20.

Quotes: Helen Macdonald

"Being a novice is safe. When you are learning how to do something, you do not have to worry about whether or not you are good at it. But when you have done something, have learned how to do it, you are not safe any more. Being an expert opens you up to judgement." 

–– Helen Macdonald (b. 1970), British writer, naturalist, and scholar

Source: Helen Macdonald. H is for Hawk. via Austin Kleon tumblr July 22, 2015 

via Sketchbook A, 2015, p. 20. 

Quotes: Elbert Hubbard

"A failure is a person who has blundered but is not able to cash in on the experience." 

–– Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915), American writer, publisher, artist, philosopher and founder of the Roycroft artisan community in East Aurora, New York

via Sketchbook A, 2015, p. 17 

Quotes: Suhaib Rumi

"Most of life is a play of energy. Of transmuting all that could drown you, into fuel to reach heights one can only dream of."

–– Suhaib Rumi (b. 1988), United Arab Emirates-born Canadian poet and entrepreneur 

via: Farah M. Siddiq on Instagram, August 26, 2022

Quotes: Albert Einstein

"I think 99 times and find nothing. I stop thinking, swim in silence, and the truth comes to me." 

–– Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born American theoretical physicist 

via: Artwork Archive on Instagram September 16, 2022

Quotes: James Baldwin

"Throw everything out of your mind...read a little, sleep. The world will still be here when you wake up, and there'll still be everything left to do."

–– James Baldwin (1924-1987), American writer and activist 

via: Nitch on Instagram, September 19, 2022

Quotes: Helen Frankenthaler

"Let mistakes lead to invention."

–– Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011), American abstract expressionist painter 

via: Jayne Emerson Textiles on Instagram, September 20, 2022

Quotes: Andy Warhol

"Sometimes people let the same problem make them miserable for years, when they could just say 'So what.' That's one of my favourite things to say. 'So what.'"

–– Andy Warhol (1928-1987), American artist 

via: Sketchbook A (oatmeal), 2015, p.13

Quotes: John Cage

"I am trying to be unfamiliar with what I am doing."

–– John Cage (1912-1992), American composer, writer and artist 

via: Sketchbook A (oatmeal), 2015, p. 13 

Quotes: T. S. Eliot

"Old men ought to be explorers

Here or there does not matter

We must be still and still moving

Into another intensity

For a further union, a deeper communion

Through the dark cold and empty desolation,

The wave cry, the wind cry, the vast waters

Of the petrel and the porpoise. In my end is my beginning." 

                            T.S. Eliot. Four Quartets: East Coker V excerpt

 –– T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), American-born British author 

via: Sketchbook A (oatmeal), 2015, p. 10

Quotes: Paul Auster

"I think if we didn't contradict ourselves, it would be awfully boring. It would be tedious to be alive. Changing your mind is probably one of the most beautiful things people can do." 

–– Paul Auster (b. 1947), American writer, filmmaker, and translator 

Source: Rob Breszny. Free Will Astrology. Gemini. June 25, 2015. Quote originally from NPR interview August 23, 2012.

via: Sketchbook A (oatmeal), 2014, p. 10. 

Quotes: Rob Breszny

"Cut away any last residues of trivial desires and frivolous ambitions. Hone your focus and streamline your self-discipline. Once and for all, withdraw your precious energy from activities that waste your time and resist your full engagement."

–– Rob Breszny, American astrologer, writer, and musician 

Source: Rob Breszny. Free Will Astrology. Scorpio. June 25, 2015. 

via: Sketchbook A (oatmeal), 2015, p. 9

Quotes: Steven Dale

"I always hear students talk about how they want to 'change the system from within.' If you want to change things, you have to do it from outside the system. That's scary and hard, but that's just the way it is." 

–– Steven Dale, founder of Creative Urban Projects, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 123

Quotes: Samuel Johnson

"To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition." 

–– Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English author 

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 121

Quotes: Doug Suisman

"Travel, experience, observe, draw. Creative urban design doesn't emerge from books or from the mind." 

–– Doug Suisman (b. 1955), American urban designer and architect 

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 120

Quotes: Mania Bedikan

"Sketch, sketch, sketch as much as possible, to observe the world and objects around you." 

–– Mania Bedikan, Canadian architect 

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 121

Quotes: Diana Vreeland

"The energy of imagination, deliberation and invention – these are the ingredients of style and all who have it share one thing: originality." 

– Diana Vreeland (1903-1989), French-American magazine editor and fashion journalist 

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 88 

Quotes: Robert Hughes

"What we need more of is slow art: art that holds time as a vase holds water: art that grows out of modes of perception and making whose skill and doggedness make you think and feel; art that isn't merely sensational, that doesn't get its message across in ten seconds, that isn't falsely iconic, that hooks into something deep-running in our natures. In a word, art that is the very opposite of mass media." 

–– Robert Hughes (1938-2012), Australian writer and art critic 

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 81

Quotes: Shaker motto

"Whatever is fashioned, let it be plain and simple and for the good." 

–– Shaker motto 

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 99

Quotes: Philip Lopate

"The prospect of a long day at the beach makes me panic. There is no harder work I can think of  than taking myself off somewhere pleasant, where I am forced to stay for hours and 'have fun.' 

–– Philip Lopate (b. 1943), American film critic, essayist, poet, and teacher 

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 69

Quotes: Jane Jacobs

"By its nature, the metropolis provides what otherwise could be given only by travelling; namely the strange." 

–– Jane Jacobs (1916-2006), American-Canadian journalist, author, activist, and theorist 

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 66

Quotes: Agnes Martin

"There is no way to describe the reward of absolute obedience. Any response to art is obedience. I wish I could point out how authoritative art work is dependent on the obedient state of mind.... When we see that all the authority there is, is within ourselves as a result of our obedience then we are free."

–– Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Canadian-born American abstract painter 

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 65

Quotes: Thomas Edison

"I make more mistakes than anyone else I know, and sooner or later, I patent most of them." 

–– Thomas Edison (1847-1931), American inventor and businessman 

via Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 56

Quotes: Maya Angelou

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." 

–– Maya Angelou (1928-2014), American poet, memoirist, and civil rights activist 

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 34

Quotes: Leonardo da Vinci

"It should not be hard for you to stop sometimes and look into the stains of walls, or ashes of a fire, or clouds, or mud or like places, in which, if you really consider them well, you may find really marvellous ideas."

–– Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Italian painter, engineer, inventor, and architect 

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 16

Quotes: Cennino Cennini

"Set yourself to practice drawing, drawing only a little each day, so that you may not come to lose your taste for it, or get tired of it. ... Do not fail, say you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worth while, and will do you a world of good." 

–– Cennino Cennini (c. 1360 – before 1427), Italian painter and writer 

Source: Il Libro Dell'Arte, c. 1435 in Betty Edwards. The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1999 (first published in 1979); p. 249.

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 9 

Quotes: Louise Schouwenberg

"Potential appeals to the imagination of the viewer. Something happens with the mind that goes further than showing a cleverly made object, for which a viewer can only feel admiration, and in the meantime comes to feel like a small clumsy person. You could compare it with looking at good art. It doesn't consume energy, but it produces energy. If you see a clever trick it's usually very tiring. But if you see potential, you are elevated as a viewer." 

–– Louise Schouwenberg (b. 1954), Dutch art and design theorist, writer, educator and former visual artist 

Source: Hella Jongerius. Misfit. p. 37.

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 4