"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.
"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.
"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.
"Work is love made visible."
–– Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), Lebanese-American writer and poet
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2006, p. 5.
"I heard someone once say that grief is love that is homeless."
–– Anne Lamott (b. 1954), American writer
Source: Anne Lamott. Somehow: Thoughts on Love. New York: Random House, 2024; p. 170.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, p. 11.
"Curiosity leads to wonder and wonder is a cousin to love. Wonder is why we're here."
–– Anne Lamott (b. 1954), American writer
Source: Anne Lamott. Somehow: Thoughts on Love. New York: Random House, 2024; p. 171.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, p. 11.
"Fiction writing is often an excuse for me to pursue various curiosities I have. And curiosity is really just a form of love: "Are you curious?" is another way of asking, "Are you in love with the world?" In my own work, projects always start with something I get really interested in, like whale standings or insects or venomous snails, or hibernating animals or snowflakes. The research is often the kernel, and I start writing around it; building it out into a spiral sort of, trying to find a character who I can use –– often I go for the most obvious thing, which is to infect the character with the same kind of interest I have (e.g., the shell collector). So when young writers ask for advice, not that I'm qualified to give any, I usually say that part of writing is finding the things in the world that you care the most about, that you care so deeply about you'd never get tired of reading or writing about them, and make those your subjects. For me it has been wonder –– what wonder is, where can we find it. For someone else it might be skateboards, or jazz, or bipolar disorder, or whatever. If you care deeply enough about something, some of that interest and passion will (hopefully) transfer through the page to the reader."
–– Anthony Doerr, American writer
Source: Austin Kleon Tumblr, Friday July 26, 2024.
via: Commonplace Book, 2022-2024, 2024, p. 189-190.
"We think with the objects we love; we love the objects we think with."
–– Sherry Turkle (b. 1948), American sociologist, professor, author
Source: Sherry Turkle. Evocative Objects., 2007 via Austin Kleon newsletter, May 14, 2024
"Let yourself be drawn by the strange pull of what you love. It will not lead you astray."
–– Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207-1273), Persian poet and Sufi mystic; interpretation by Coleman Barks (b. 1937), American poet
"Here's another way to get on life's good side: cultivate duties that consistently encourage you to act out of love and joy rather than out of guilt and obligation."
–– Rob Breszny, American astrologer, writer, and musician
Source: Rob Brezsny. Free Will Astrology. January 13, 2019, Cancer.
via: Day In & Day Out Notebook, 2018, p. 32.
"We are shaped and fashioned by what we love."
–– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), German author, scientist, and statesman
via 2020 Aboveground Art Supplies Knapsack Sketchbook, 2022 p. 13.
"Art is always an exchange, like love, whose giving and taking can be a complex and wounding matter; according to Michelangelo."
–– Ali Smith (b. 1962), Scottish academic, author, journalist, and playwright
Source: Val McDermid. Still Life. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2020; unpaginated. (Ali Smith. Artful.)
via 2020 Aboveground Art Supplies Knapsack Sketchbook, 2022 p. 23.
"Talent is insignificant. I know a lot of talented ruins. Beyond talent lie all the usual words: discipline, love, luck, but, most of all, endurance."
–– James Baldwin (1924-1987), American writer and activist
"Reading isn't important because it helps you get a job. It's important because it gives you room to exist beyond the reality you're given. Reading makes the world better. It is how humans merge. How minds connect. Dreams. Empathy. Understanding. Escape. Reading is love in action."
–– Matt Haig (b. 1975), English author and journalist
Source: Art Propelled December 18, 2018.
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook 2019 g, 2019, p. 2.
"If intergenerational trauma can alter DNA, why can't intergenerational love?"
–– Alicia Elliott (b. 1987), American-born, Canadian Tuscarora writer and editor
Source: Review of In a Mind Spread Out on the Ground, Globe and Mail, Saturday April 6, 2019.
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook 2018 e, 2019, p. 37.
"Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape."
–– bell hooks, pen name of Gloria Jean Watkins (1952-2021), American writer, academic, & activist
"One needs more than ambition and talent to make a success of anything, really. There must be love and a vocation."
–– Jessye Norman (1945-2019), American opera singer and recitalist
