"Creation is lifework, creation is how ... you spend your life, you cannot divide life and the creation, it's impossible. Shut your eyes, close your ears, don't use your brain, use your heart, your soul."
–– Yohji Yamamoto (b. 1943), Japanese fashion designer
"There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about."
–– Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011), American abstract expressionist painter
"As actors, we feel like we have to be ready, but I'd say you're never ready. You're not prepared for something you've never done before, so let go of that. This past year I did some symphony gigs for the first time, and it was incredible. It was better than being ready, because I just had to be new."
–– Ali Stroker (b. 1987), American author, actress, singer
Source: New York Times T Style Magazine, Sunday April 21, 2024, p. 56.
"And this is what we tend to forget: In the careers of certain artists, those who make big, varied bodies of work in which different strands of their experience are subsumed, the business of beginning, and beginning again, never ceases. Each new beginning brings with it all the uncertainty and blankness of the first. Experience might protect such an artist from forcing what's clearly not working, but that core anxiety of not knowing if one will create again always remains. "Do not worry," Hemingway would console himself, "you have always written before and you will write now."
–– Aatish Taseer (b. 1980), British-born American writer and journalist
Source: Aatish Taseer. 'The First Stroke.' New York Times T Style Magazine, Sunday April 21, 2024, p. 53.
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook L 2024, p. 15.
"Do not neglect the day of small things, for little beginnings have big endings."
–– Florence Scovel Shinn (1871-1940), American artist and book illustrator
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook L 2024, p. 14.
"Art doesn't start out hallowed. It starts out personal: an emergency."
–– Joan Acocella (1945-2024), New Yorker staff writer and essayist
Source: Joanna Biggs. 'The Last Word.' New York Times Book Review, Sunday March 24, 2024, p. 12. Re: review of Joan Acocella. The Bloodied Nightgown And Other Essays, posthumous collection.
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook L 2024, p. 13.
"Life isn't as long as you think it is. You have a choice: You can go and try to live a playful life, or you can go and live a life which excludes playfulness. And it doesn't get you anywhere. Playfulness gets you somewhere."
–– Hans Zimmer (b. 1957), German-born American film score composer and music producer
Source: Austin Kleon newsletter Friday April 19, 2024.
via: Art Alternatives Knapsack Sketchbook L 2024, p. 12.
"The writer studies literature, not the world. He lives in the world; he cannot miss it. He is careful of that he reads, for that is what he will write. He is careful of what he learns, because that is what he will know."
– Annie Dillard (b. 1945), American writer
via: Commonplace Book 1999-2001, 2003.
"As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
–– Nelson Mandela (1918-2013), South African anti-apartheid activist, politician, South Africa's first Black president (1994-1999), winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 1993
via: Commonplace Book 1999-2001, 2002.
"No is the widest word we consign to language."
–– Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), American poet
via: Commonplace Book 1999-2001, 2002.
"Be as light as a bird, not as a feather."
–– Italo Calvino (1923-1985), Cuban-born Italian author and journalist
via: Commonplace Book 1999-2001, 2002.
"Carl Jung said that people are more frightened of their strengths than they are of their weaknesses. If we knew how good we are, Jung believed, we'd have to act on our potential."
–– Harriet Rubin (b. 1952), American writer
Source: Harriet Rubin. Soloing: Realizing Your Life's Ambition. New York: Harper Business, 1999; p. 80.
"The patterns of our lives reveal us. Our habits measure us."
–– Mary Oliver (1935-2019), American poet
"I could never be friends with anybody who wasn't curious and didn't have a sense of humour."
–– Iris Apfel (August 29, 1921- March 1, 2024), American entrepreneur and style icon
"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. Opportunity rarely knocks on your door. Knock rather on opportunity's door if you ardently wish to enter."
–– Will Rogers (1879-1935), American Cherokee actor, writer, cowboy
Source: Faire Magazine Issue 9, July 2023, p. 61.
via: Aboveground Art Supplies Sketchbook 2020, 2024, p. 32.
"When I feel creatively stuck I remember some great advice a furniture designer gave me years ago: by starting to make something, the act of making will function as a problem-solving process and the work will reveal itself to me in unfolding layers as I continue to put in the time."
–– Tara Badcock, Tasmanian artist
Source: Faire Magazine Issue 9, July 2023, p. 61.
via: Aboveground Art Supplies Sketchbook 2020, 2024, p. 31.
"Maybe the journey isn't so much about becoming anything. Maybe it's about unbecoming everything that isn't really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place."
–– Paulo Coelho (b. 1947), Brazilian writer and lyricist
Source: Peter Attia. Outlive. New York: Harmony Books, 2023; p. 408.
via: Aboveground Art Supplies Sketchbook 2020, 2024, p. 31.
"You teach what you most need to learn."
–– Richard Bach (b. 1936), America writer
Source: Oliver Burkeman. Four Thousand Weeks. New York: Allen Lane, 2021; p. 33.
via: Aboveground Art Supplies Sketchbook 2020, 2023, p. 30.
"Discipline, primarily, is our capacity to make a commitment in time."
–– Robert Fripp (b. 1946) English guitarist, record producer and author
Source: Austin Kleon newsletter December 1, 2023. Robert Fripp. The Guitar Circle.
via: Aboveground Art Supplies Sketchbook 2020, 2023, p. 27.
"Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Tiptoe if you must, but take a step."
–– Naeem Callaway, American pastor, author, and mentor
"If you reject your own ideas, then the part of the brain that comes up with ideas is going to stop."
–– Matt Farley (b. 1978), American musician, song writer, and film maker
Source: Austin Kleon Newsletter, April 5, 2024.
"Acceptance of the unacceptable is where grace is allowed to enter."
–– 14th Dalai Lama (b. 1935), Tibetan Buddhist monk, born Tenzin Gyatso
"One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak."
–– G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English writer
via: Day In & Day Out Notes, 2024, p. 53.
"Small things have a way of overmastering the great. This small press can destroy a kingdom."
–– Sonya Levien (1888-1960), Russian-born American screenwriter
via: Day In & Day Out Notes, 2024, p. 53.
"Small things done consistently, though undramatic, yield more than the large and sporadic."
–– Stephen Mansfield (b. 1958), American author
via: Day In & Day Out Notes, 2024, p. 53.
"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies."
–– Mother Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), Albanian-born Indian Roman Catholic nun
via: Day In & Day Out Notes, 2024, p. 53.
"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.
"Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will take care of themselves."
–– Dale Carnegie (1888-1955), American writer and lecturer
via: Day In & Day Out Notes, 2024, p. 52.
"Whatever you do, do with deep alertness, then even small things become sacred."
–– Rajneesh (1931-1990), Indian guru
via: Day In & Day Out Notes, 2024, p. 52.
