Quotes: Paul Krugman

"[I]t takes some sophistication to realize that simplicity may be the result of years of hard thinking." 

–– Paul Krugman (b. 1953) American economist and author 

Source: Paul Krugman. Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2020; p. 403.

via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 18.

Quotes: Peace Pilgrim

"If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought." 

–– Peace Pilgrim (1908-1981), American spiritual teacher and activist, born Mildred Lisette Norman

via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 86. 

Quotes: Amanda Lang

"You need the discipline to alter and perhaps even abandon cherished theories and plans based on new information, rather than trying to twist the new information to fit the traditional mould." 

–– Amanda Lang (b. 1970), Canadian journalist and author 

Source: Amanda Lang. The Power of Why. Toronto: HarperCollins, 2012; p. 52.

 via: Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2014, p. 155. 

Quotes: Morton Feldman

"When he did find the time to compose, Feldman employed a strategy that John Cage taught him – it was "the most important advice anybody ever gave me," Feldman told a lecture audience in 1984. "He said that it's a very good idea that after you write a bit, stop and then copy it. Because while you're copying it, you're thinking about it, and it's giving you other ideas. And that's the way I work. And it's marvellous, just wonderful, the relationship between working and copying." 

–– Morton Feldman (1926-1987), American composer 

Source: Mason Currey. Daily Rituals: How Artists Work. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2013; p. 15. 

via Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2014, p. 107.

Quotes: Steve Jobs

"Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains."  

–– Steve Jobs (1955-2011), American industrial designer and entrepreneur 

via: Commonplace Book 2022-2024, 2024, p. 180.

Quotes: Sherry Turkle

"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

Quotes: Kyo Maclear

"Neither one of my parents finished high school. There were obvious downsides, but one result is that they discovered the movement of their minds without thought of permission, without an eye on a good grade. From them, I should have known: knowledge is a beautiful sideways and sometimes upward spiral, but a tower of appeasement will not feed you. Merit badges will teach compliance with preset paths but will not teach pathfinding." 

–– Kyo Maclear (b. 1970), British-born, Canadian writer and artist 

Source: Kyo Maclear. Unearthing: A Story of Tangled Love and Family Secrets. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2023; pp. 166. 

via: Commonplace Book 2022, 2023, p.106-7.

Quotes: Alexander Graham Bell

"I am a believer in unconscious cerebration*. The brain is working all the time, though we do not know it. At night, it follows up what we think in the daytime. When I have worked a long time on one thing, I make it a point to bring all the facts regarding it together before I retire; and I have often been surprised at the results." *cerebration = thinking

–– Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), Scottish-born (with ties to Canada and the United States), inventor, scientist and engineer 

Source: Alan Lightman. In Praise of Wasting Time. New York: TED Books, Simon and Schuster, 2018; p. 54. 

via: Commonplace Book 2022, 2022, p. 59.

Quotes: V. S. Naipaul

"Small things start us in new ways of thinking." 

–– V. S. Naipaul (1932-2018), Trinidadian-British novelist, travel writer, essayist.

 via: Day In & Day Out Notes, 2024, p. 53. 

Quotes: Albert Einstein

"The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking."

–– Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born American theoretical physicist 

via: Day In & Day Out Notebook, 2018, p. 25.

Quotes: William Kentridge

"What I sometimes find is that if a drawing is going badly, you are blessed. There is no anxiety about messing it up. It needs to be messed up to be rescued. One either tears it into four pieces and then rearranges them, or erases with a cloth. It is kind of relying on a thinking in the material."

–– William Kentridge (b. 1955), South African artist 

Source: Lisa Kokin, Instagram, March 23, 2023. 

via: Sketchbook 33, 2023, p. 92.

Quotes: Renate Hiller

"When we are following someone else's pattern, she says, we are mostly stuck in our heads: thinking, counting, reading. When we are figuring out a design for ourselves, we are feeling, asking questions, observing, and making decisions, connecting to the process and the metamorphosis of the work on a deeper level." 

–– Renate Hiller, fibre artist and teacher

Source: Melanie Falick. Making a Life: Working by Hand and Discovering the Life You Are Meant to Live. New York: Artisan (a division of Workman Publishing Co., Inc.), 2019; p. 47. 

via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook I 2019-2020, 2020, p. 29.

Quotes: Agnes Martin

"A lot of good things don't get made because of too much thinking." 

–– Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Canadian-born American abstract painter 

via: Sketchbook 27, 2015, p. 104.

Quotes: A. A. Milne

"The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking." 

–– A. A. Milne (1882-1956), English writer 

via: Sketchbook 25, 2015, p. 116. 

Quotes: Gail Bowen

"Taylor once told me that making art allows her to see what she's been thinking all along." 

–– Gail Bowen (b. 1942), Canadian author and playwright 

Source: Gail Bowen. The Gifted. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 2013, p. 89. 

via: Sketchbook A, 2018, p. 72.

Women's quotes: Patti Smith

"I daydream a lot –– that's how I get my ideas. If I'm sitting in a café, I'm not on my phone because I want to hear my mind. I think that those periods of small solitude that we are losing are so important." 

–– Patti Smith (b. 1946), American writer, poet, singer-songwriter and musician