"Don't think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It's quiet, but the roots are down there riotous."
–– Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207-1273), Persian poet and Sufi mystic; interpretation by Coleman Barks (b. 1937), American poet
via: Sketchbook 20, 2013, p. 134
"The key to longevity in terms of style is not U-turns, but subtle reinvention."
–– Lulu Guinness (b. 1960), British accessories fashion designer
Source: Living Etc.. October 2009, p. 46.
via: Sketchbook 20, 2013, p. 120
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment."
–– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American philosopher and writer
via: Sketchbook 20, 2013, p. 120
"The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought. This in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium."
–– Norbert Platt (b. 1951), senior executive in European luxury goods industry & former Montblanc CEO
Source: Elle Decoration UK, January 2013, p. 15.
via: Sketchbook 20, 2013, p. 118
"Even when you know exactly what you want, it's sometimes crucial for you not to accomplish it too fast. It may be that you need to mature more before you're ready to handle your success. It could be that if you got all of your heart's desire too quickly and easily, you wouldn't develop the vigorous willpower that the quest was meant to help you forge. The importance of good timing can't be underestimated either: In order for you to take full advantage of your dream-come-true, many other factors in your life have to be in place and arranged just so."
–– Rob Breszny, American astrologer, writer, and musician
Source: Rob Breszney. Free Will Astrology, Virgo January 10, 2013. View Magazine. January 10-16, 2013, p. 25.
via: Sketchbook 20, 2013, p. 92.
"I've been absolutely terrified every moment of my life, and I've never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do."
–– Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), American artist
via: Sketchbook 20, 2013, p. 90
"We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about."
–– Charles Kingsley (1819-1875), British clergyman, historian, and writer
via: Sketchbook 20, 2013, p. 89
"Life has an inside as well as an outside. Consumer culture directs all resources and attention to life on the outside. What happens to the inner life? Art is never a luxury because it stimulates and responds to the inner life. We are badly out of balance. I don't think of art/creativity as a substitute for anything else. I see it as a powerful expression of our humanity –– and on the side of humanity under threat. If we say art is a luxury, we might as well say that being human is a luxury."
–– Jeanette Winterson (b. 1959), British author
via: Sketchbook 20, 2012, p. 65
"There is only one valuable thing in art: the thing you cannot explain."
–– Georges Braque (1882-1963), French painter, collagist, printmaker, and sculptor
via: Sketchbook 20, 2012, p. 61
"If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches. For the creative, there is no poverty."
–– Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Bohemian-Austrian poet and novelist
via Sketchbook 20, 2012, p. 60
"One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful."
–– Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis
via: Sketchbook 20, 2012, p. 58
"Big breakthroughs happen when what is suddenly possible meets what is desperately necessary."
–– Thomas L. Friedman (b. 1953), American political commentator and writer
Source: The New York Times, May 15, 2012
via Sketchbook 20, 2012, p. 55
"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
"Close some doors today. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because they lead you nowhere."
–– Paulo Coelho (b. 1947), Brazilian writer
via Sketchbook 20, 2012, p. 47
"Respond to every call that excites your spirit."
–– Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207-1273), Persian poet and Sufi mystic; interpretation by Coleman Barks (b. 1937), American poet
via: Sketchbook 20, 2012, p. 45
"My first experience of great luck was when I was not picked up by the art market and I was left to work by my myself for about fifteen years. I did not consider that I was ignored. I considered that I was being blessed by privacy. This is very, very important to me."
–– Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), French-American artist
Source: Louise Bourgeois. Edited with texts by Marie-Laure Bernadac & Hans-Ulrich Obrist. Louise Bourgeois: Destruction of the Father/Reconstruction of the Father: Writings and Interviews 1923-1997. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1998; p. 144.
via: Sketchbook 20, 2012, p. 33
"If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate."
–– Thomas J. Watson (1874-1956), American businessman (IBM)
via: Sketchbook 20, 2012, p. 5
Source: Louise Penny. Bury Your Dead, London, UK: Sphere, 2010, p. 230.
via: Sketchbook 19, 2012, p. 124
"We also maintain –– again with perfect truth –– that mystery is more important than half of beauty, the element of strangeness that stirs the senses through the imagination."
–– Richard Le Gallienne (1866-1947), English author and poet
via: Sketchbook 19, 2012, p. 114
"There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion."
–– Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher and statesman
via: Sketchbook 19, 2012, p. 114
"I called [Bob Dylan]. ... I said, "I am totally wigged out and I don't know what I am supposed to be doing, and I've got a lot of pressure to incorporate what's going on." He said, "Go back to your roots. Take out the albums that you loved and play those songs. Get your band together and rehearse those songs, and then you will start writing." And that's what I did."
–– Sheryl Crow (b. 1962), American musician, singer, songwriter, actress
Source: Rolling Stone, October 31, 2002
via: Sketchbook 19, 2012, p. 111
"Without passion, all the skill in the world won't lift you above craft. Without skill, all the passion in the world will leave you eager but floundering. Combining the two is the essence of the creative life."
–– Twyla Tharp (b. 1941), American dancer, choreographer, and writer
via: Sketchbook 19, 2012, p. 104
"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen."
–– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American philosopher and writer
via Sketchbook 19, 2012, p. 69
"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
"Truth is the strong compost in which beauty may sometimes germinate."
–– Christopher Morley (1890-1957), American writer
via Sketchbook 19, 2012, p. 33
"So never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself."
–– unknown
via Sketchbook 19, 2012, p. 27
"Without firm limits there is no play."
–– Rem Koolhaas (b. 1944), Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist, professor
via Sketchbook 19, 2012, p. 26
"The problem about art is not finding more freedom, it's about finding obstacles."
–– Richard Rogers (1933-2021), British architect
via Sketchbook 19, 2012, p. 23
Kesu'
"It all falls into place. Just start cutting. Every cut reveals the next cut."
–– Chief Pal'nakwalagalls Douglas Cranmer (1927-2006), Canadian Kwakwak'wakw totem pole carver and artist
via Sketchbook 19, 2012, p. 20
