Quotes: Frank Zappa

"Without deviations from the norm, progress is not possible."

–– Frank Zappa (1940-1993) American musician, composer and bandleader 

via: Sketchbook 31, 2019, p. 59.

Quotes: Meister Eckhart

"Become aware of what is in you. Announce it, pronounce it, produce it, and give birth to it."

–– Meister Eckhart (1260-1328), German Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mystic 

via: Sketchbook 31, 2019, p. 58.

Quotes: Bob Dylan

"Act the way you want to be and soon you'll be the way you act." 

–– Bob Dylan (b. 1941), American singer and songwriter

via: Sketchbook 31, 2019, p. 58. 

Quotes: Robin Kay

"People who don't take chances are doomed to mediocrity." 

–– Robin Kay (b. 1950), Canadian fashion designer and fashion industry icon 

via: Sketchbook 31, p. 16.

Quotes: Pico Iyer

"We've always needed rituals to give continuity to our lives, to offer protection and even meaning to our hours, to humble and exalt us with the reminder that our days are not as random as they seem. Ritual is what turns chaos into a kind of order."

–– Pico Iyer (b. 1957) British-born novelist and essayist 

Source: Pico Iyer. 'Rituals of the Fast-Moving World.' enRoute Magazine, October 2019, p. 78. 

via: Sketchbook 31, 2019, p. 15.

Quotes: Hermien de Vos

"Just as we have a need for wild nature, along with that comes a need for ancient wisdom, ancient traditions with wise elders, who live close to the earth, and understand it. A need to return to those basic truths." 

–– Hermien de Vos, South African actress 

Source: Art Propelled, September 20, 2018.

via: Sketchbook 30, 2019, p. 144.

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: Antoni Tàpies

"Sometimes people have the idea that art should be highly refined. But I always believed that one could make art out of simple, humble things. Small things can be transcendental. They can change our way of looking at the world. I think it's important to make art out of almost anything." 

–– Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012), Spanish painter, sculptor, and art theorist

Source: Art Propelled October 18, 2018.

via: Sketchbook 30, 2018, p. 105.

Quotes: Chilly Gonzales

"If you can steal without getting caught, then you've pulled off the perfect crime –– which is what an artist is supposed to do. You're not meant to come up with new things as an artist; no artist would say that's what they do. It's all about taking your influences and hopefully filtering them through a personal viewpoint." 

–– Chilly Gonzales, stage-name for Jason Charles Beck, (b. 1972), Canadian musician, songwriter, producer. 

Source: Austin Kleon, October 2018. 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2018, p. 96. 

Quotes: Danny Gregory

"I always find that if I have that glimmer of an idea, if I have that grain of sand to put in the oyster, I'm on the way. I'm going to get to the end by having a beginning." 

–– Danny Gregory, London, UK born artist, author, teacher, and speaker 

Source: Art Propelled, September 16, 2018. 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2018, p. 91.

Quotes: G.K. Chesterton

"We need to be happy in this wonderland without once being merely comfortable."

–– G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English writer 

Source: Free Will Astrology, June 28, 2018. 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2018, p. 89.

Quotes: Philip Glass

"I sometimes hear about work described in terms of 'originality' or 'breakthrough,' but my personal experience is quite different. For me, music has always been about lineage. The past is reinvented and becomes the future. But the lineage is everything." 

–– Philip Glass (b. 1937), American composer and musician 

Source: Austin Kleon October 5, 2018. 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2018, p. 67. 

Quotes: David Whyte

"Art is the act of triggering deep memories, of what it means to be fully human." 

–– David Whyte (b. 1955), British poet and author 

Source: Sabrina Ward Harrison on Instagram

via: Sketchbook 30, 2017, p. 47.

Quotes: Clayton Cubitt

"Find the thing in you that is different, that's as sharp as a diamond and jagged as a razor. Hone that, because that's the thing with which you'll cut the world." 

–– Clayton Cubitt (b. 1972), American photographer, filmmaker, and writer

Source: The Great Discontent on Instagram 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2017, p. 47.

Quotes: James Baldwin

"and he who finds no way to rest cannot long survive the battle."  

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

via: Sketchbook 30, 2017, p. 40. 

Quotes: Richard Feynman

"Study hard what interests you in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible." 

–– Richard Feynman (1918-1988), American theoretical physicist 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2017, p. 38.

Quotes: Brian Eno

"When in doubt, tidy up."

–– Brian Eno (b. 1948), British musician and producer 

Source: Austin Kleon January 26, 2017 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2017, p. 24.

Quotes: Franz Kafka

"The thornbush is the old obstacle in the road. It must catch fire if you want to go further." 

–– Franz Kafka (1883-1924), Bohemian-born writer 

via: Sketchbook 30, 2017, p. 15.

Quotes: Neil Gaiman

"[Ideas] come from day dreaming, from drifting, that moment when you're just sitting there ... The trouble with these days is that it's really hard to get bored. I have 2.4 million people on Twitter who will entertain me at any moment ... it's really hard to get bored. I'm much better at putting my phone away, going for boring walks, actually trying to find the space to get bored in. That's what I've started saying to people who say 'I want to be a writer.' I say 'great, get bored.'" 

–– Neil Gaiman (b. 1960), British author and screenwriter 

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016, p. 135.

Quotes: 14th Dalai Lama

"Sleep is the best form of meditation." 

–– 14th Dalai Lama (b. 1935), Tibetan Buddhist monk, born Tenzin Gyatso 

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016, p. 132. 

Quotes: Francis Bacon

"Age appears to be best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read."  

–– Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Irish-born British painter 

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016, p. 124. 

Quotes: Mark Strand

"It's such a lucky accident, having been born, that we're almost obliged to pay attention." 

–– Mark Strand (1934-2014), Canadian-born American poet, essayist, translator 

Source: Brain Pickings 

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016, p. 110.

Quotes: James Richardson

"Success repeats itself until it is a failure." 

–– James Richardson (b. 1950), American poet and critic 

Source: Rob Brezsny, Free Will Astrology, June 2, 2016.

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016, p. 98. 

Quotes: unknown

"Old ways won't open new doors." 

–– unknown 

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016, p. 91.

Quotes: Chinese proverb

"When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills." 

–– Chinese proverb 

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016, p. 91.

Quotes: Wil S. Hylton

"It seems to me now, with greater reflection, that the value of experiencing another person's art is not merely the work itself, but the opportunity it presents to connect with the interior impulse of another. The arts occupy a vanishing space in modern life: They offer one of the last lingering places to seek out empathy for its own sake, and to the extent that an artist's work is frustrating or difficult or awful, you could say this allows greater opportunity to try to meet it. I am not saying there is no room for discriminating taste and judgement, just that there is also, I think, this other portal through which to experience creative work and to access a different kind of beauty, which might be called communion." 

–– Wil S. Hylton, American journalist 

Source: T: The NY Times Style Magazine via: Sarah Boyts Yoder Instagram, 2016 

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016, p. 73. 

Quotes: Ben Shahn

"Nonconformity is the basic pre-condition of art, as it is the pre-condition of good thinking and therefore of growth and greatness in a people. 

–– Ben Shahn (1898-1969), Lithuanian-born (Russian Empire) American artist 

Source: Austin Kleon 

via: Sketchbook 29, 2016, p. 69.

Quotes: Amos Kennedy Jr.

"I don't want more, I want less. I want to have less, so I will have more time to devote to this gift that I have. Because in the final analysis, the only thing that we have that is not renewable is our life. When I am dead, they will still make money. My time, I have decided, is more important. To claim my time to do what I want to do in that time." 

–– Amos Kennedy Jr. (b. 1948), American printmaker, book artist, and papermaker

Quotes: Gerhard Richter

"Art is the highest form of hope." 

–– Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) German visual artist 

Source: Elle Decoration UK, March 2023, p. 57.

Quotes: Eikoh Hosoe

"I wanted to do things that nobody else was doing. Failing at something that other people can do was embarrassing to me, but I didn't see anything embarrassing about failing at things that nobody else was doing." 

–– Eikoh Hosoe (b. 1933), Japanese photographer and filmmaker