"Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work."
–– Chuck Close (1940-2021), American visual artist
Source: Adam Alter. Anatomy of a Breakthrough. Toronto: Simon & Shuster, 2023; p. xix.
via: Aboveground Art Supplies 2020 Knapsack Sketchbook, 2023, p. 25.
"There is no greatness without a little stubbornness. Works of art are not born in flashes of inspiration but in a daily fidelity."
–– Albert Camus (1913-1960), French writer and philosopher
Source: Maria Popova Instagram, August 21, 2023.
via: Sketchbook 33, 2023, p. 88.
"First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you're inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won't. Habit is persistence in practice."
–– Octavia Butler (1947-2006), American science fiction writer
"You kind of keep your tools sharp by working all the time. We are professionals. You can't wait for inspiration. I try to do it every day."
–– Leonard Cohen (1934-2016), Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist
via: Sketchbook A, 2017, p. 39.
"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
"For an artist this is the only way. There is no help anywhere. He must listen to his own mind."
–– Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Canadian-born American abstract painter
Source: Agnes Martin. "Beauty is the mystery of life." Agnes Martin. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1992; p. 10.
Note: "Mind" as used by Martin does not imply intellect. Rather it suggests receptivity to inspiration, awakened sensibility, and intuition. To listen is to pay attention, take note, and reflect.
via: Sketchbook 17, 2012, p. 137.
"I asked Sanna [Haverinen] about inspiration and how she finds it. Her answer: "I cannot simply sit down and think about things to make and bring forth new creations. It's when I start doing something with my hands that the process actually happens –– out of that, something new will begin and evolve."
–– Lotta Jansdotter, Åland-born, American-based designer, maker, artist, author, teacher
Source: Lotta Jansdotter. Open Studios with Lotta Jansdotter. San Fransisco: Chronicle Books, 2011; p. 124.
via Sketchbook 16, 2011, p. 142.
"I have my best ideas when I don't think about having ideas. It's very strange. It's like an electronic flash – sudden! Also, they come during the daytime and in the bathtub! It's very strange. But you cannot count on it, you cannot say, 'Oh, I will have my electronic flash now!' You have to work at the same time, because when people say they wait for inspiration, well, I don't believe in that. Inspiration is a nice word. But the French say the appetite comes when you eat. And the ideas come when you work."
–– Karl Lagerfeld (1933-2019), German fashion designer
Source: Beker, Jeanne. 'Stylesetters: 'It started with me and it stops with me.' The Globe and Mail, Saturday April 11, 2015, p. 4. (question & answer interview with Karl Lagerfeld) via my book of commonplace.
