"Illusion is a comfortable garment thrown over an uncomfortable truth which, left too long covered, must rot."
–– Ann-Marie MacDonald (b. 1958), Canadian playwright, author, actress, and broadcast host
Source: Ann-Marie MacDonald. Fayne. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2022; p. 681.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 33.
–– Sheldon Kopp (1929-1999), American psychotherapist and author
via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 33.
"Despite her exhaustion, Remedios felt the energy of novelty. The trees were different here, the streets, the smells; it enlivened her. She'd been forced into change for so long now that it felt comforting, even as she landed in a new country with nothing but a suitcase."
–– Claire McMillan, American author
Source: Claire McMillan. Alchemy of a Blackbird. Toronto: Atria Books (Simon and Schuster), 2023; p. 132.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 35.
"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present."
–– Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD), Roman Emperor and Stoic Philosopher
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 34.
"What is anxiety? It is the next day. With whom, then, does the pagan contend in anxiety? With himself, with a delusion, because the next day is a powerless nothing if you yourself do not give it your strength."
–– Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, and social critic
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 34.
"You mustn't be afraid to fail or you'll never succeed."
–– Miss Marion Brook, character on The Gilded Age 2.2 (American TV show)
"[B]aseball, like life, required the same letting go of expectations to really allow enjoyment."
–– Gay Hendricks (b. 1945), American psychologist and writer
Source: Gay Hendricks, Lindsay Tinker. The Fourth Rule of Ten. New York: Hay House, 2015; p. 309.
via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 74.
"The greater the contrast, the greater the potential. Great energy only comes from a correspondingly great tension of opposites."
–– Carl Jung (1875-1961), Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist
via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 63.
"To foster psychological richness in our lives, we must lean into the unfamiliar, the risky, and the challenging. ... Being a generalist requires broader perspectives than being a specialist."
–– Shigehiro Oishi, Japanese psychologist, professor and author
Source. Shigehiro Oishi. Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life. New York: Doubleday, 2025; p. 91.
via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 50.
"Hardwood grows slowly."
–– Jewel (Kilcher) (b. 1974), American singer, songwriter, poet, actress, activist, author
Source: Cal Newport. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout. New York: Portfolio/Penguin, 2024; p. 170.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 79.
"The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one's "own," or "real" life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one's real life –– the life God is sending one day by day."
–– C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), British writer, scholar, and lay theologian
via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 45-6.
"The best way to change the world is to change your mind, which often requires feeding yourself. It makes for biochemical peace. It's almost like a prayer: to be needy, to eat, to taste, to be filled, building up instead of tearing down. You find energy to do something you hadn't expected to do, maybe even one of the holiest things: to go outside and stand under the stars, or to go for a walk in the morning, or in such hard times, both."
–– Anne Lamott (b. 1954), American writer
Source: Anne Lamott. Grace (Eventually): Thoughts on Faith. New York: Riverhead Books (Penguin Group), 2007; p. 252-253.
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 93.
"Creativity and imagination are not frosting on a cake: They are integral to our sustainability. They are survival mechanisms. They are of the essence of who we are. They constitute our deepest empowerment."
–– Matthew Fox (b. 1940), American priest, theologian, and author
Source: Matthew Fox. Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher, 2004 (2002); p. 31.
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 65.
"As I have said, the purpose of emptying ourselves is to make room for the new. The only reason to give up something is to gain something better. Peace is undeniably better than war. Thus we must ask, "Of what do we have to empty ourselves in order to gain peace?" What traditional attitudes and styles of behaviour must we lay aside? What outmoded viewpoints, policies, understandings, and resentments are we still carrying around? To what hidden opportunities must we be open and empty?"
–– M. Scott Peck (1936-2005), American psychiatrist and author
Source: M. Scott Peck. The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace. New York: Touchstone, 1987; p. 225.
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, 57.
What are you grateful for right now?
What brings you joy right now?
What are you noticing right now? Do you see a pattern of what you are noticing?
"Every arrow that hits the bull's eye is the result of one hundred misses"
– Buddhist saying
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 90.
"Contrary to the myth that artists are eccentrics, leaping from one peak of inspiration to another, [Philip] Pearlstein exemplifies the greater truth that most artists live as they work: incrementally, day by day, in the same way that they build up a canvas or chisel a sculpture. They are creatures of habit. The dancer Twyla Tharp wakes up every morning at five-thirty and takes a cab to the gym –– a trite ritual, but as she has written, "a lot of habitually creative people have preparation rituals linked to the setting in which they choose to start their day. By putting themselves into that environment, they begin their creative day." ... Novelty in creative endeavours usually arises from routine –– you have to be familiar with something before you know what is novel."
–– Michael Kimmelman (b. 1958), American critic and journalist
Source: Michael Kimmelman. The Accidental Masterpiece: On the Art of Life and Vice Versa. New York: Penguin Press, 2005; p. 150-151.
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 116.
"What shapes our lives are the questions we ask, refuse to ask, or never think to ask."
–– Sam Keen (1931-2025), American author, academic and philosopher
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 117.
"Small things with great love. ... It is not how much we do, but how much love we put into the doing. And it is not how much we give, but how much love we put into the giving. To God there is nothing small."
–– Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), Albanian-born Indian Roman Catholic nun
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 117.
"Confront the difficult while it is still easy; accomplish the great task by a series of small acts."
–– Lao Tzu (c. 500 BCE), Chinese philosopher and writer
Source: Tao Te Ching
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 118.
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
–– Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British Prime Minister 1940-1945; 1951-1955
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 121.
"I am done with great things and big plans, great institutions and big successes. I am for those tiny, invisible loving human forces that work from individual to individual, creeping through the crannies of the world like so many rootlets, or like the capillary oozing of water, yet which, if given time, will rend the hard monuments of human pride."
–– William James (1842-1910), American psychologist and philosopher
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 129.
"Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother."
–– Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), Lebanese-American writer and poet
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 132.
"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear."
–– Mark Twain (1835-1910), pen name of Samuel Clemens, American writer
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 132.
"It's hard to beat a person who never gives up."
–– Babe Ruth, nickname of George Herman "Babe" Ruth (1895-1948), American baseball player
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 133.
"When we have arrived at the question, the answer is already near."
–– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American philosopher and writer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 42.
"For the happiest life, days should be rigorously planned, nights left open to chance."
–– Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983), American journalist and author
via: Commonplace Book, 2006-2009, 2007, p. 41.
"Here's a good reason to push yourself –– you will always learn more about life and your capacity to succeed when you are uncomfortable. Often when your back is up against the wall of fear, the greatest breakthroughs appear."
–– Jack Canfield (b. 1944), American author and motivational speaker
Source: Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Les Hewitt. The Power of Focus. Deerfield Beach, Florida: Health Communications, 2000; p. 68.
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 86.
"You are not here to merely make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand."
–– Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), American politician
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 88.
"The road to life is not wide and straight; it is steep and tricky, and those who only travel on sunny days will never reach their destination."
– Old Buddhist saying
"Challenge is the core and mainspring of all human action. If there's an ocean, we cross it. If there's a disease, we cure it. If there's a wrong, we right it. If there's a record, we break it. And if there's a mountain, we climb it."
–– James Ullman (1907-1971), American writer and mountaineer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 91.
"To venture causes anxiety; not to venture is to lose oneself."
–– Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, and social critic
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 78.
"Vision is not enough; it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up to the step; we must step up the stairs."
–– Václav Havel (1936-2011), Czech playwright, poet, statement, political dissident
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 79.
"An inventuring* life finds aliveness at the edges of discovery and growth. The purpose of life is, then, to grow."
–– Richard J. Leider, American life coach and author
*Inventure n. new or original invention, discovery, or idea; v. to create something new or innovative
Source: Leider, Richard J. and David A. Shapiro. Repacking Your Bags: Lighten Your Load for the Rest of Your Life. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1995; p. 87.
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 77.
"The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves."
–– Carl Jung (1875-1961), Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 190.
"Learning theorists now argue for the importance of non-productive play as a critical component of productive advancement. Play is one of the few universal ways in which we test what we know."
–– Eric Booth, American actor, teacher, and author
Source: Eric Booth. The Everyday Work of Art. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, 1997; p. 143.
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 190.
For the past three years, I have maintained a daily sketchbook practice. It's a durational art practice and the purpose of it is for creative self-care and to see how I and the practice develop over time. In these dedicated sketchbooks (I have now filled 13), I go through phases of collage, drawing, painting, printmaking. Each day I play. Each day I "see and respond."
"Attention is the most powerful tool of the human spirit. We can enhance or augment our attention with practices like meditation, breathwork, and exercise, diffuse it with technologies like email, texting, and social media, or alter it with pharmaceuticals. In the end, though, we are fully responsible for how we choose to use this extraordinary resource."
–– Linda Stone (b. 1955), American writer and consultant
Source: Jeff Karp. LIT: Use Nature's Playbook to Energize Your Brain, Spark Ideas, and Ignite Action. New York: William Morrow, 2024; p. 82.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 64.
Luck, insights, or breakthroughs are "a reward for not giving up."
–– Gay Hendricks (b. 1945), American psychologist and writer
Source: Gay Hendricks, Lindsay Tinker. The Third Rule of Ten. New York: Hay House, 2014; p. 235.
via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 68.
"Nothing happens until something moves. When something vibrates, the electrons of the entire universe resonate with it. Everything is connected."
–– Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born American theoretical physicist
via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 65.
"It's said that the most complicated thing of all is to achieve simplicity."
–– Jean-Luc Bannalec, pseudonym of Jörg Bong, (b. 1966) a German author.
Source: Jean-Luc Bannalec. Death of a Master Chef. Translated by Jamie Lee Searle. New York: Minotaur Books, 2020 (translation 2024).
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 69.
"We are drowning in information while starving for wisdom. The world henceforth will be run by synthesizers, people able to put together the right information at the right time, think critically about it, and make important choices wisely."
–– Edward O. Wilson (1929-2021), American biologist, naturalist, and writer
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 63.
"Being in between projects is interesting. I've had a really bad work ethic over the past year or two, but now when I look back at all the stuff I shot, even though I thought I was doing a really lazy job of it, like even if you just do like a little tiny bit every single day just by the sheer momentum of committing to an idea, even if it's just a sentence, a title of something –– that ends up turning into something."
–– John Wilson (b. 1986), American documentary filmmaker
Source: Why John Wilson can't stop filming YouTube
"I close my [studio] day with a process I've come to enjoy over the years, creating small works that allow me to play outside my usual medium of oil painting. It's my way of experimenting with materials I'm not typically known for, such as polish and calamine, and working on different surfaces such as wood, paper or canvas. I also explore using watercolours, oil pastels and soft pastels. These pieces are more about embracing mistakes and letting go of the day's creative energy. I don't judge myself when creating these works; they're a space to experiment and release any built-up tension. If one of these works sparks more interest or inspiration overnight, I'll revisit it the next morning, but in the moment, it's just about letting go and playing."
–– Songezo Zantsi (b. 1991), South African visual artist
Source: House and Leisure South Africa, Autumn 2025, Digest/Studio visits, Songezo Zantsi, p. 229.
via: Sketchbook U 21, 2025, p. 8-9.
"Rest and good moods are both essential for sustained and successful work."
–– Oliver Burkeman (b. 1975), British author and journalist
Source: Oliver Burkeman. Meditations for Mortals. Toronto: Allen Lane, 2024; p. 73.
via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 43.
"Just start. Try more things, think later. Be less precious. Make things that aren't going anywhere. Read more. Look away every now and then. Adventures and experiences outside of the studio make more interesting and relatable work."
–– Johannes Jacobus (Koos) Groenewald, South African graphic designer and illustrator
Source: House and Leisure South Africa, Autumn 2025, Digest/Studio visits, Koooooos, p. 230.
via: Sketchbook U 21, 2025, p. 9.
"Where do I get my ideas from? You might as well have asked that of Beethoven. He was goofing around in Germany like everybody else, and all of a sudden this stuff came gushing out of him. It was music. I was goofing around like everybody else in Indiana, and all of a sudden stuff came gushing out. It was disgust with civilization."
–– Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), American writer, quote from August 10, 2004
Source: Austin Kleon newsletter, Friday April 11, 2025
via: Sketchbook U 21, 2025, p. 11.
"The day you catch an idea you fall in love with, even a small one, is a beautiful day."
–– David Lynch (1946-2025), American filmmaker, visual artist, musician and actor
via: Sketchbook U 21, 2025, p. 13.
"Honesty always gets my attention. Not particularly someone who is honest to me, but someone who is honest to themselves."
–– Heath Ledger (1979-2008), Australian actor
via: Sketchbook U 21, 2025, p. 13.
"Maybe working on the little things as dutifully and honestly as we can is how we stay sane when the world is falling apart."
–– Haruki Murakami (b.1949), Japanese writer
via: Sketchbook U 21, 2025, p. 12.
"A journal is more than a memory goad. It's therapeutic. The act of opening a notebook to put words down stills the crosscurrents of worry, drawing to focus the essential thought patterns that best define us, intersecting those thoughts with the condition of our life at that exact moment. A journal is one of the few anchors the human condition allows us."
"Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff –– most fails, some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others will copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is in the doing something else."
"I was broke for a very long time, but I always believed in myself and believed in the work and knew I had something special, Sherald recalled. "And so I always tell young artists, the world is full of quitters, so don't quit and you'll eventually rise to the top. And here I am, tada."
–– Amy Sherald (b. 1973), American painter
Source: Olivia Hampton. "Painter Amy Sherald asks: What is American?", https://www.kclu.org/arts-culture/2025-04-09/painter-amy-sherald-asks-what-is-american, April 9, 2025.
"Your ego can become an obstacle to your work. If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity."
–– Marina Abramović (b. 1946), Serbian conceptual and performance artist
"Each of us lives an original life. In nature, there is no sameness. No two rocks are alike. No two people are alike. No moment is like another moment. We are born to do certain things. We are born to fill a certain need. We are born as verbs, not nouns."
–– Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Canadian-born American abstract painter
Source: Judy Martin blog, July 16, 2023
"I often think that I don't have a single new idea in my head. But the big mistake is to just wait for inspiration to happen. It won't come looking for you. You have to start doing something: you have to build a trap to catch it. I like to do that by starting the very mundane process of tidying my studio. It may seem like it has nothing to do with the creative job in hand but I think tidying up is a form of daydreaming, and what you're really doing is tidying your mind. It's a kind of mental preparation. It's a way of getting your mind in place to notice something. And that's what being creative is really: it's noticing when something interesting is starting to happen."
–– Brian Eno (b. 1948), British musician and producer
"Little as we know about the way in which we are affected by form, by colour, and light, we do know this, that they have an actual physical effect. Variety of form and brilliancy of colour are actual means of recovery."
–– Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), English social reformer, statistician, and founder of modern nursing
"And I am free to aspire not to a life without problems, but to a life of ever more interesting and absorbing ones."
–– Oliver Burkeman (b. 1975), British author and journalist
Source: Oliver Burkeman. Meditations for Mortals. Toronto: Allen Lane, 2024; p. 78.
via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 43.
"Dailyness is the most important thing. Creating that time every day for the muse to come through."
–– Claire McMillan, American author
Source: Claire McMillan. Alchemy of a Blackbird. Toronto: Atria Books (Simon and Schuster), 2023; p. 3-4.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 34.
"Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, and scared, even the people who seem to have it more or less together. They are much more like you than you would believe. So try not to compare your insides to their outsides."
–– Anne Lamott (b. 1954), American writer
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 46-7.
"Questioning takes the familiar and makes it mysterious again, thus removing the comfort of "knowing"."
–– Julia Brodsky, educator and education researcher based in the United States
Source: Jeff Karp. LIT: Use Nature's Playbook to Energize Your Brain, Spark Ideas, and Ignite Action. New York: William Morrow, 2024; p. 22.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2024, p. 60.
"It's a thousand times harder to come back than to become. Becoming famous is hard, but making a comeback is almost impossible."
–– Cher (b. 1946), American singer and actress
Source: Alexandra Jacobs. "Turn Back Time." The New York Times Book Review, Sunday December 8, 2024; p. 27. Re: Cher. Cher: The Memoir, Part One.
via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 58.
"... when I was in the classroom, it felt like the only way for me to keep my attention focused on what the teacher was saying was to doodle at the same time. It creates a buffer that the information can filter through if I'm doing something cognitively at the same time."
–– Walter Scott (b. 1985), Canadian artist and graphic novelist
Source: Emily Donaldson. "Walter Scott pulls no punches in Wendy series." The Globe and Mail, Saturday August 3, 2024; p. R8.
via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 57.
""Are you very frightened, Charlotte?"
""Of course not," I sputtered.
""Then how do you propose to be brave?"
""I am terrified, Miss Gourley."
""Good show, there's your first step. Remember, all must feel fear: The important thing is not to be ruled by it."
–– Ann-Marie MacDonald (b. 1958), Canadian playwright, author, actress, and broadcast host
Source: Ann-Marie MacDonald. Fayne. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2022; p. 669.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 32.
"Work is done, then forgotten. Therefore it lasts forever."
–– Lao Tzu (c. 500 BCE), Chinese philosopher and writer
Source: Tao Te Ching
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 34.
"When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life."
–– Eckhart Tolle (b. 1948), German spiritual teacher and writer
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 59.
"When we are not sure, we are alive."
–– Graham Greene (1904-1991), British writer, playwright, literary critic
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 19.
"And the purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. You can do that only if you have curiosity, and unquenchable spirit of adventure."
–– Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), American author, activist, diplomat, political figure, and First Lady. Quote from: You Learn by Living. 1960.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 48.
"It is better to live rich than die rich."
–– Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English author
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 48.
"A painting is not about an experience. It is an experience."
–– Mark Rothko (1903-1970), Latvian-born American painter
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 48.
"Art is theft."
–– Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish artist
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 19.
"All great works of literature either dissolve a genre or invent one."
–– Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), German cultural critic
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 19.
"[I]t takes some sophistication to realize that simplicity may be the result of years of hard thinking."
–– Paul Krugman (b. 1953) American economist and author
Source: Paul Krugman. Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2020; p. 403.
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 18.
"A man's accomplishments in life are the cumulative effect of his attention to detail."
–– John Foster Dulles (1888-1959) American politician, lawyer, and diplomat
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 18.
"The old is dead, and I don't know what the new is. The only way to find the new is to start different things and see if there's something that can come out of experimentation. It's somewhat unsettling, but it's a hopeful thing in a way. I've been here before, lots of times."
–– David Lynch (1946-2025), American filmmaker, visual artist, musician and actor
Source: Austin Kleon newsletter, January 24, 2025
via: Sketchbook K 11, 2025, p. 45.
"Practice is the best of all instructors."
–– Publilius Syrus (85 BC – 43 BC), Syrian-born Latin writer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 97.
"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step."
–– Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American Baptist minister and civil rights activist
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 98.
"All that we are is a result of what we have thought."
–– Buddha, formerly known as Siddhartha Gautama (623 or 563 BCE to 543 or 483 BCE), Indian philosopher and founder of Buddhism
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 98.
"We are shaped by what we extend ourselves into; our attending and our participation inform our lives. We must be very careful with the objects and actions we present to ourselves and to our children because we are changed by them."
–– Eric Booth, American actor, teacher, and author
Source: Eric Booth. The Everyday Work of Art. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, 1997; p. 24.
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 186.
"The good news is that the moment you decide what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without."
–– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American philosopher and writer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 100.
"Plans are worthless, but planning is everything."
–– Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), American politician (former President of the USA) and military General
"How can I use what I love to do, what I am good at doing, to show love to those around me? To show examples of love who don't often see it? And can that snowball for them to start sharing more love too?"
–– Leanne Ford (b. 1981), American interior designer
Source: Leanne Ford. The Slow Down. New York: Abrams, 2024; p. 173.
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, p. 9.
"A man is a poet if difficulties inherent in his art provide him with ideas; he is not a poet if they deprive him of ideas."
–– Paul Valéry (1871-1945), French poet, philosopher, essayist"Anything that slows us down is a spiritual practice."
–– Don Grayson (1939-2017), Canadian Anglican priest
Source: Lois Huey-Heck and Jim Kalnin. The Spirituality of Art. Kelowna, B.C.: Northstone Publishing, 2006.
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 158.
"Art happens –– no hovel is safe from it; no prince may depend upon it; the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about."
–– James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), American painter
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 186.
"The role of art is not to isolate us in an artificial or neutral space but to help us participate in our life. Its goal is to be useful, not only beautiful. Its use is therapeutic as well as artistic. Art seeks to relieve, alleviate, heal."
–– Henri Matisse (1869-1954), French visual artist
Source: Judy Martin My Process blog, Monday February 10, 2025.
via: Sketchbook K 11, 2025, p. 47.
"That which seems like a false step is just the next step."
–– Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Canadian-born American abstract painter
Source: Oliver Burkeman. Meditations for Mortals. Toronto: Allen Lane/Penguin Random House Canada, 2024; p. 9.
via: Sketchbook K 11, 2025, p. 45.
"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men's store. A cat nap in your office chair. Or two cups of good, hot black coffee."
–– David Lynch (1946-2025), American filmmaker, visual artist, musician and actor
Source: F.B.I Special Agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachlan), Twin Peaks.
via: Sketchbook K 11, 2024, p. 44.
"You know, I"ve come to believe perfection only lives in little moments. You know? Can't be sustained over hours. Just instances, you know? Little wisps of time. Then the world becomes imperfect again."
–– Character John Dutton, played by Kevin Costner
Source: Yellowstone 5.6 episode: "Cigarettes, Whiskey, a Meadow and You."
"A genius is the one most like himself."
–– Thelonious Monk (1917-1982), American jazz pianist and composer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 175.
"I've always believed you need space to disengage in order to be creative."
–– Nate Berkus (b. 1971), American interior designer and TV host
Source: Caitlin Flemming and Julie Grebel. Sense of Place: Design Inspired by Where We Live." New York: Abrams, 2023; p. 85.
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 13.
"There is no single style.
"Those days are gone, though honestly I wonder if those days ever existed. Even historical styles were based on travels, cultures combining, practicality, needs. Maybe we were always meshing styles, and these new morphed visions aren't new at all!"
–– Leanne Ford (b. 1981), American interior designer
Source: Leanne Ford. The Slow Down. New York: Abrams, 2024; p. 137.
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, p. 8.
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift."
–– Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born American theoretical physicist
Source: Betty Edwards. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. New York: Tarcher Perigree, 2012, p. xv.
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 11.
"The diminutive chains of habit are seldom heavy enough to be felt, till they are too strong to be broken."
–– Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English author
Source: Wendy Wood. Good Habits, Bad Habits. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2019; p. 20.
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 13.
"To keep the spirit of childhood within oneself for the whole of one's life means retaining
the curiosity of knowing
the pleasure of understanding
the desire to communicate."
–– Bruno Munari (1907-1998), Italian artist and designer
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 14.
"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity."
–– Christopher Morley (1890-1957), American writer
Source: Shigehiro Oishi. Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life. New York: Double Day, 2025; p. 43.
via: Sketchbook M 13 2024, 2025, p. 16.
"Whatever you think can't be done, somebody will come along and do it."
–– Thelonious Monk (1917-1982), American jazz pianist and composer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 175.
"Every calling is great when greatly pursued."
–– Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), American physician and poet
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 140.
"... In fashioning a work of art we are by no means free, we do not choose how we shall make it but ... it pre-exists us and therefore we are obliged, since it is both necessary and hidden, to do what we should have to do if it were a law of nature –– that is to say, to discover it."
–– Marcel Proust (1871-1922), French writer and critic
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 152.
"Anything that happens to me as a writer has been precipitated by an action of my own."
–– Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938), American writer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 155.
"Art ... must do something more than give pleasure: it should relate to our own life so as to increase our energy of spirit."
–– Sir Kenneth Clark (1903-1983), British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 157.
"In Celtic understanding the soul is "the place where the imagination lives.""
–– John O'Donohue (1956-2008), Irish author, priest, philosopher, poet
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 165.
"At its root, creativity is not about success or failure. It's a spiritual path. It's mystery."
–– Clarissa Pinkola Estés (b. 1945), American author and psychoanalyst
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 165.
"A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world; it depends on your imagination."
–– Thelonious Monk (1917-1982), American jazz pianist and composer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 175.
"If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And that's a big mistake."
–– Frank Wilczek (b. 1951), American theoretical physicist and mathematician
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 176.
"Dance in the body you have."
–– Agnes DeMille (1905-1993), American dancer and choreographer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 179.
"Education is what remains after the facts are gone."
–– Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Irish-born British painter
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 189.
"Remember our etymologies: experience means almost the same as experiment, and an expert is one who is good at experiencing in a particular situation. Learning by experience is taking in the successful gleanings from standard artistic practice the improvisations between you and the real world."
–– Eric Booth, American actor, teacher, and author
Source: Eric Booth. The Everyday Work of Art. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, 1997; p. 152.
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 191.
"Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think."
–– Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), British statesman
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 89.
"If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought."
–– Peace Pilgrim (1908-1981), American spiritual teacher and activist, born Mildred Lisette Norman
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 86.
"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."
–– Carl Jung (1875-1961), Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 84.
"If everyone was satisfied with themselves there would be no heroes."
–– Mark Twain (1835-1910), pen name of Samuel Clemens, American writer
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2006, p. 80.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
–– Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American Baptist minister and civil rights activist
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2006, p. 78.
"Show me a completely contented person and I'll show you a failure."
–– Thomas Edison (1847-1931), American inventor and businessman
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2006, p. 78.
"The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might of the force of habit –– and must understand that practices are what create habits. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him –– and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires."
"An artist is a person who thinks more than there is to think, feels more than there is to feel, and sees more than there is to see."
–– John Oliver Hobbes (1867-1906), American-born, British novelist and dramatist, pen-name of Pearl Mary Teresa Richards
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2006, p. 40.
"It is easier to try to be better than you are than to be who you are."
–– Marion Woodman (1928-2018), Canadian psychoanalyst and writer
Source: Oliver Burkeman. Meditations for Mortals. Toronto: Allen Lane/Penguin Random House Canada, 2024; p. v.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 33.
"Work is love made visible."
–– Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), Lebanese-American writer and poet
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2006, p. 5.
"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook."
–– William James (1842-1910), American psychologist and philosopher
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 33.
"A photograph is ... a moment. But a painting is a monument."
–– Ann-Marie MacDonald (b. 1958), Canadian playwright, author, actress, and broadcast host
Source: Ann-Marie MacDonald. Fayne. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2022; p. 153.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 31.
"We cannot change anything unless we accept it."
–– Carl Jung (1875-1961), Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist
Source: Oliver Burkeman. Meditations for Mortals. Toronto: Allen Lane/Penguin Random House Canada, 2024; p. 60.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 34.
"Ideas come along in the strangest way when you just pay attention."
–– David Lynch (1946-2025), American filmmaker, visual artist, musician and actor
Source: David Lynch. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2006; p. 77.
via Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2013, p. 39.
"No pressure, no diamonds."
–– Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher
via Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2013, p. 27.
"[C]reativity follows from positive emotion. The more positive a person's mood on a given day, the more creative thinking he did the next day –– and, to some extent, the day after that –– even taking into account his moods on those later days. This may be due to what psychologists call an incubation effect. Pleasant moods stimulate greater breadth in thinking –– greater cognitive variation –– which can linger and even build over a day or more. Such cognitive variation can lead to new insights at work. In other words, although new ideas might emerge soon after you experience a positive emotion, you might find them popping up much later."
–– Teresa Amabile (b. 1950), American academic and author; and Steven J. Kramer, American independent researcher, writer, and consultant
Source: Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2011; p. 52-53.
via Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2013, p. 27-28.
