"When you begin a project you don't want to see your whole purpose in one clear glance. You need shadows in the landscape, to keep you alert and expectant. If you know too much about a story, the work is already done, and writing it down becomes a chore."
–– Hilary Mantel (1952-2022), British writer and critic
Source: Alice Vincent Writes, Instagram, October 8, 2024.
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2024, p. 48.
"In any art, you don't know in advance what you want to say ... it's revealed to you as you say it. That's the difference between art and illustration."
–– Aaron Siskind (1903-1991), American photographer
via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 25.
"I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of the landscape –– the loneliness of it, the dead feel of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn't show."
–– Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), American visual artist
"There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain."
–– Georges Braque (1882-1963), French painter, collagist, printmaker, and sculptor
via: Sketchbook 20, 2012, p. 61
"I like it when one is not certain what one sees. When we do not know why the photographer has taken a picture and when we do not know why we are looking at it, all of a sudden we discover something. We start seeing."
–– Saul Leiter (1923-2013) American photographer and painter
