"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.
"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.
"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.
"Big dreams don't come without big failures. Things will get tough and you will make mistakes. Repeatedly. We're human and we're going to flounder, but it's what you do to get back up that matters. If I allowed myself to stay in the downward swings, then I'd still be there. Similarly, if you miss the mark on your first try, don't give up. Success is a cumulative process; it's not a one-time event. When you're just starting out, it's one mess-up after another. Winning one, then losing the next. After a little while, the "mess-ups" turn into valuable experiences. The more opportunities you have to win, lose, or barely make, the more chances you'll have to convert those experiences into fuel. You don't learn as much just from winning or playing it safe."
–– Quincy Jones (b. 1933), American record producer, songwriter, composer, arranger, and film and television producer.
Source: Quincy Jones. 12 Notes on Life and Creativity. New York: Abrams Image, 2022; p. 127-8.
via: Commonplace Book 2022, 2023, p. 125.
"My experience is what I agree to attend to. Only those items which I notice shape my mind – without selective interest, experience is an utter chaos."
–– William James (1842-1910), American psychologist and philosopher
""My work is really slow and repetitive. ... You have to go through almost excruciating boredom to be spontaneous and creative, to get to a place where the work really flows." For eight hours a day he combines experience and improvisation, As he described the process to an interviewer in 2004, "It is mysterious in a mundane way.""
–– Lance Letscher (b. 1962), American collage artist and Charles Dee Mitchell
Source: Lance Letscher Collage. Introduction by Charles Dee Mitchell. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press, 2009, p. 6.
via: Day In & Day Out Notebook, 2019, p. 36.
"Surely all art is the result of one's having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, where no one can go any further."
–– Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist
via 2020 Aboveground Art Supplies Knapsack Sketchbook, 2022 p. 22.
"[The job of art is] to investigate your own experience unsparingly, and make that investigation public so that others can use the evidence in their own private investigations."
–– Marina Endicott (b. 1958), Canadian novelist and short story writer
Source: Marina Endicott. 'The job of art requires us to investigate our own experiences unsparingly.' The Globe and Mail, Saturday September 9, 2023, p. B7.
"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
"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
"Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want."
–– Author unknown
via Sketchbook 5, 2008, p. 10
