Quotes: Henry Miller

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things." 

–– Henry Miller (1891-1980), American writer 

Quotes: Susan Griffin

"Because we think in a fragmentary way, we see fragments. And this way of seeing leads us to make actual fragments of the world." 

–– Susan Griffin (b. 1943), American radical feminist philosopher, essayist and playwright 

Source: Gabor Maté. The Myth of Normal. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf, 2022; p. 13.

via: Sketchbook N 14, 2004, p. 25.

Quotes: Deborah Levy

"All writing is about seeing new things and investigating them. Sometimes it's about seeing new things in old ways."

–– Deborah Levy (b. 1959), South African-born, British novelist, playwright, and poet. 

Source: Deborah Levy. Real Estate: A Living Autobiography. Toronto, ON: Hamish Hamilton Canada, 2021; p. 257.

via: Commonplace Book 2022, 2022, p. 96.

Quotes: Anaïs Nin

"We don't see things as they are. We see them as we are."

–– Anaïs Nin (1903-1977), French-Cuban American writer 

Quotes: David Usher

"Our interests determine how we see the world. Those interests are pulled into tight focus while the rest of the scene is often blurred [...] The world each of us sees is just one possible level of sight. One lens. To be more creative we need to open up to other lenses and other ways of seeing. The more we can see, the more ideas we can use in our creative work."

–– David Usher (b. 1966), British-born Canadian musician, author, and public speaker 

Source: David Usher. Let the Elephants Run., p. 133. 

via: Striped notebook, 2016, p. 12. 

Quotes: James Hillman

"We can't change anything until we get some fresh ideas, until we begin to see things differently." 

–– James Hillman (1926-2011), American Jungian psychologist 

via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook 2019 i, 2019, p. 14.  

Quotes: Josef Albers

 "I did not teach painting but seeing." 

–– Josef Albers (1888-1976), German-born artist and educator 

via: Sketchbook 32, 2022, p. 125.

Quotes: Henry David Thoreau

"It's not what you look at that matters ... it's what you see."

–– Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American essayist, philosopher, and poet 

via:  Sketchbook 30, 2019, p. 110.

Quotes: James Baldwin

"You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world... The world always changes according to the way people see it, and if you can alter, even by a millimetre, the way... people look at reality, then you can change it."

–– James Baldwin (1924-1987), American writer and activist 

Quotes: Chris Ware

"Drawing is simply another way of seeing, which we don't really do as adults. Children see all the time. Children are always drawing with their eyes. I think that's part of what becoming an artist is, is getting back in touch with that sense of experience and wonder that you have as a kid... [T]he act of drawing is seeing, it's trying to see something, and it puts you into a completely different mental state. It puts you into a state of being in that moment for that specific moment and understanding reality in a way that adults are very, very good at not doing. We spend most of our lives kind of getting out of the way of things, trying to remember stuff, trying to get through the day, certain regrets and problems, mistakes that we made, either an hour before or years before, come back to us. So, we spend much of our time just in this sort of cloud of remembrance and anxiety, but trying to live in that moment is a very difficult accomplishment. I think drawing encourages that more than anything." 

–– Chris Ware (b. 1967), American cartoonist 

Source: Austin Kleon tumblr 

via: Sketchbook A, 2017, p. 41.

Quotes: Saul Leiter

"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