Quotes: Buddhist saying

"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.

Quotes: Publilius Syrus

"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.

Quotes: Yumi Sakugawa

"Creative expression is not just the actual work you create, but the person you become and the life you live as you become the person who is devoted to the ongoing practice of creating work and sharing it with the world." 

–– Yumi Sakugawa (b. 1985), American interdisciplinary artist 

Source: The Attention Habit, Instagram, December 14, 2024.

Quotes: Miles Davis

"There is no shortcut. I'm no accident. People like to say it's natural. You have to practice and you have to study." 

–– Miles Davis (1926-1991), American musician, bandleader, and composer 

Source: Nitch.com

via: Sketchbook N 14, 2024, p. 39. 

Quotes: Dainin Katagiri

"The important point of spiritual practice is not to try to escape your life, but to face it –– exactly and completely." 

–– Dainin Katagiri (1928-1990), Japanese Buddhist monk and writer 

Source: Daily Philosopher, Instagram, October 7, 2024.

via: Sketchbook  O #15, 2024, p. 6. 

Quotes: Publius Syrus

 "Practice is the best of all instructors." 

–– Publius Syrus 1st century BC Syrian-born Latin writer

Source: Linda Trichler Metcalf and Tobin Simon. Writing the Mind Alive: The Proprioceptive Method for Finding Your Authentic Voice. New York: Ballantine Books, 2002, p. 156.

via: Sketchbook N 14, 2024, p. 22.

Quotes: Tom Blachford

"It has been a reminder that creative practice and creative flow often come from listening to your very quietest impulses and running with them." 

–– Tom Blachford (b.1987), Australian photographer 

Source: Aleesha Callahan. "Future Image Maker." Habitus June-September 2023, Issue 57, p. 45.

Quotes: Nicholas Jennings re: Neil Peart

"Mastering his instrument was always Mr. Peart's mission. He continued studying, taking drum lessons late in life from percussion legends such as Freddie Gruber, wanting to learn more improvisational playing. He never stopped practicing. "My worst fear is not having a heart attack," he said in the 2016 documentary Time Stand Still, "but that I'm going to have one on stage and wreck the show. That's what makes you a professional. You don't go on stage with your frailties. Or your regrets or your resentments. Every night, you have to bring that commitment." 

–– Nicholas Jennings, Canadian music journalist & Neil Peart (1952-2020), Canadian drummer in the band Rush. 

Source: Jennings, Nicholas. Neil Peart, Musician, 67: "Rush's Drummer was one of the World's Best," The Globe and Mail, Saturday, January 18, 2020, p. B24. 

via: Day In and Day Out Notebook, 2020, p. 40-41.

Quotes: Ben Hogan

"Every day you don't practice you're one day further from being good." 

–– Ben Hogan (1912-1997), American professional golfer 

Source: Twyla Tharp. The Creative Habit, p. 32. 

via: Day In & Day Out Notebook, 2020, p. 38. 

Quotes: Doris Lessing

"Words. Words. I play with words, hoping that some combination, even a chance combination, will say what I want." 

–– Doris Lessing (1919-2013), British-Zimbabwean novelist 

via: Striped notebook, 2016, p.1.

Quotes: Kurt Vonnegut

"I've been drawing all my life, just as a hobby, without really having any shows or anything. It's just an agreeable thing to do, and I recommend it to everybody. I always say to people, practice an art, no matter how well or badly, because then you have the experience of becoming, and it makes your soul grow." 

–– Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), American writer 

Source: New York Times Book Review, Sunday August 20, 2023, p. 24.

Quotes: Kurt Vonnegut

"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it." 

–– Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007), American writer 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 144. 

Quotes: Barbara Hemphill

"All of us are born with more talent than others in some arena of life, but innate skill doesn't automatically produce success. Practice and training does."

–– Barbara Hemphill, American organizational expert 

Source: Elle Decoration UK, May 2016, p. 95. 

via: Sketchbook 26, 2022, p. 125.

Quotes: Cennino Cennini

"Set yourself to practice drawing, drawing only a little each day, so that you may not come to lose your taste for it, or get tired of it. ... Do not fail, say you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worth while, and will do you a world of good." 

–– Cennino Cennini (c. 1360 – before 1427), Italian painter and writer 

Source: Il Libro Dell'Arte, c. 1435 in Betty Edwards. The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, 1999 (first published in 1979); p. 249.

via: Sketchbook 21, 2013, p. 9 

Quotes: Ludwig van Beethoven

"Don't only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets, for it and knowledge can raise men to the divine." 

–– Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), German composer and pianist 

via: Sketchbook 20, 2012, p. 54

Black History quotes: Malcolm Gladwell

"Practice isn't the thing you do once you're good. It's the thing you do that makes you good." 

–– Malcolm Gladwell (b. 1963), British-born Canadian author and journalist

From Outliers: The Story of Success

Black History quotes: Louis Armstrong

"If I don't practice for a day, I know it. If I don't practice for two days, the critics know it. And if I don't practice for three days, the public knows it."

 

–– Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), American trumpeter and vocalist