"Everyone is screwed up, broken, clingy, and scared, even the people who seem to have it more or less together. They are much more like you than you would believe. So try not to compare your insides to their outsides."
–– Anne Lamott (b. 1954), American writer
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 46-7.
"Questioning takes the familiar and makes it mysterious again, thus removing the comfort of "knowing"."
–– Julia Brodsky, educator and education researcher based in the United States
Source: Jeff Karp. LIT: Use Nature's Playbook to Energize Your Brain, Spark Ideas, and Ignite Action. New York: William Morrow, 2024; p. 22.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2024, p. 60.
"It's a thousand times harder to come back than to become. Becoming famous is hard, but making a comeback is almost impossible."
–– Cher (b. 1946), American singer and actress
Source: Alexandra Jacobs. "Turn Back Time." The New York Times Book Review, Sunday December 8, 2024; p. 27. Re: Cher. Cher: The Memoir, Part One.
via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 58.
"... when I was in the classroom, it felt like the only way for me to keep my attention focused on what the teacher was saying was to doodle at the same time. It creates a buffer that the information can filter through if I'm doing something cognitively at the same time."
–– Walter Scott (b. 1985), Canadian artist and graphic novelist
Source: Emily Donaldson. "Walter Scott pulls no punches in Wendy series." The Globe and Mail, Saturday August 3, 2024; p. R8.
via: Commonplace Book, 2024, 2025, p. 57.
""Are you very frightened, Charlotte?"
""Of course not," I sputtered.
""Then how do you propose to be brave?"
""I am terrified, Miss Gourley."
""Good show, there's your first step. Remember, all must feel fear: The important thing is not to be ruled by it."
–– Ann-Marie MacDonald (b. 1958), Canadian playwright, author, actress, and broadcast host
Source: Ann-Marie MacDonald. Fayne. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2022; p. 669.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 32.
"Work is done, then forgotten. Therefore it lasts forever."
–– Lao Tzu (c. 500 BCE), Chinese philosopher and writer
Source: Tao Te Ching
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 34.
"When you become comfortable with uncertainty, infinite possibilities open up in your life."
–– Eckhart Tolle (b. 1948), German spiritual teacher and writer
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 59.
"When we are not sure, we are alive."
–– Graham Greene (1904-1991), British writer, playwright, literary critic
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 19.
"And the purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. You can do that only if you have curiosity, and unquenchable spirit of adventure."
–– Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962), American author, activist, diplomat, political figure, and First Lady. Quote from: You Learn by Living. 1960.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 48.
"It is better to live rich than die rich."
–– Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English author
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 48.
"A painting is not about an experience. It is an experience."
–– Mark Rothko (1903-1970), Latvian-born American painter
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 48.
"Art is theft."
–– Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish artist
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 19.
"All great works of literature either dissolve a genre or invent one."
–– Walter Benjamin (1892-1940), German cultural critic
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 19.
"[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.
"A man's accomplishments in life are the cumulative effect of his attention to detail."
–– John Foster Dulles (1888-1959) American politician, lawyer, and diplomat
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 18.
"The old is dead, and I don't know what the new is. The only way to find the new is to start different things and see if there's something that can come out of experimentation. It's somewhat unsettling, but it's a hopeful thing in a way. I've been here before, lots of times."
–– David Lynch (1946-2025), American filmmaker, visual artist, musician and actor
Source: Austin Kleon newsletter, January 24, 2025
via: Sketchbook K 11, 2025, p. 45.
"Practice is the best of all instructors."
–– Publilius Syrus (85 BC – 43 BC), Syrian-born Latin writer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 97.
"Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step."
–– Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American Baptist minister and civil rights activist
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 98.
"All that we are is a result of what we have thought."
–– Buddha, formerly known as Siddhartha Gautama (623 or 563 BCE to 543 or 483 BCE), Indian philosopher and founder of Buddhism
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 98.
"We are shaped by what we extend ourselves into; our attending and our participation inform our lives. We must be very careful with the objects and actions we present to ourselves and to our children because we are changed by them."
–– Eric Booth, American actor, teacher, and author
Source: Eric Booth. The Everyday Work of Art. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, 1997; p. 24.
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 186.
"The good news is that the moment you decide what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without."
–– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American philosopher and writer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 100.
"Plans are worthless, but planning is everything."
–– Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), American politician (former President of the USA) and military General
"How can I use what I love to do, what I am good at doing, to show love to those around me? To show examples of love who don't often see it? And can that snowball for them to start sharing more love too?"
–– Leanne Ford (b. 1981), American interior designer
Source: Leanne Ford. The Slow Down. New York: Abrams, 2024; p. 173.
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, p. 9.
"A man is a poet if difficulties inherent in his art provide him with ideas; he is not a poet if they deprive him of ideas."
–– Paul Valéry (1871-1945), French poet, philosopher, essayist"Anything that slows us down is a spiritual practice."
–– Don Grayson (1939-2017), Canadian Anglican priest
Source: Lois Huey-Heck and Jim Kalnin. The Spirituality of Art. Kelowna, B.C.: Northstone Publishing, 2006.
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 158.
"Art happens –– no hovel is safe from it; no prince may depend upon it; the vastest intelligence cannot bring it about."
–– James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), American painter
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 186.
"The role of art is not to isolate us in an artificial or neutral space but to help us participate in our life. Its goal is to be useful, not only beautiful. Its use is therapeutic as well as artistic. Art seeks to relieve, alleviate, heal."
–– Henri Matisse (1869-1954), French visual artist
Source: Judy Martin My Process blog, Monday February 10, 2025.
via: Sketchbook K 11, 2025, p. 47.
"That which seems like a false step is just the next step."
–– Agnes Martin (1912-2004), Canadian-born American abstract painter
Source: Oliver Burkeman. Meditations for Mortals. Toronto: Allen Lane/Penguin Random House Canada, 2024; p. 9.
via: Sketchbook K 11, 2025, p. 45.
"Harry, I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don't plan it, don't wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men's store. A cat nap in your office chair. Or two cups of good, hot black coffee."
–– David Lynch (1946-2025), American filmmaker, visual artist, musician and actor
Source: F.B.I Special Agent Dale Cooper (played by Kyle MacLachlan), Twin Peaks.
via: Sketchbook K 11, 2024, p. 44.
"You know, I"ve come to believe perfection only lives in little moments. You know? Can't be sustained over hours. Just instances, you know? Little wisps of time. Then the world becomes imperfect again."
–– Character John Dutton, played by Kevin Costner
Source: Yellowstone 5.6 episode: "Cigarettes, Whiskey, a Meadow and You."
"A genius is the one most like himself."
–– Thelonious Monk (1917-1982), American jazz pianist and composer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 175.
"I've always believed you need space to disengage in order to be creative."
–– Nate Berkus (b. 1971), American interior designer and TV host
Source: Caitlin Flemming and Julie Grebel. Sense of Place: Design Inspired by Where We Live." New York: Abrams, 2023; p. 85.
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 13.
"There is no single style.
"Those days are gone, though honestly I wonder if those days ever existed. Even historical styles were based on travels, cultures combining, practicality, needs. Maybe we were always meshing styles, and these new morphed visions aren't new at all!"
–– Leanne Ford (b. 1981), American interior designer
Source: Leanne Ford. The Slow Down. New York: Abrams, 2024; p. 137.
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, p. 8.
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift."
–– Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born American theoretical physicist
Source: Betty Edwards. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. New York: Tarcher Perigree, 2012, p. xv.
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 11.
"The diminutive chains of habit are seldom heavy enough to be felt, till they are too strong to be broken."
–– Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English author
Source: Wendy Wood. Good Habits, Bad Habits. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2019; p. 20.
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 13.
"To keep the spirit of childhood within oneself for the whole of one's life means retaining
the curiosity of knowing
the pleasure of understanding
the desire to communicate."
–– Bruno Munari (1907-1998), Italian artist and designer
via: Sketchbook M 13, 2024, 2025, p. 14.
"Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity."
–– Christopher Morley (1890-1957), American writer
Source: Shigehiro Oishi. Life in Three Dimensions: How Curiosity, Exploration, and Experience Make a Fuller, Better Life. New York: Double Day, 2025; p. 43.
via: Sketchbook M 13 2024, 2025, p. 16.
"Whatever you think can't be done, somebody will come along and do it."
–– Thelonious Monk (1917-1982), American jazz pianist and composer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 175.
"Every calling is great when greatly pursued."
–– Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), American physician and poet
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 140.
"... In fashioning a work of art we are by no means free, we do not choose how we shall make it but ... it pre-exists us and therefore we are obliged, since it is both necessary and hidden, to do what we should have to do if it were a law of nature –– that is to say, to discover it."
–– Marcel Proust (1871-1922), French writer and critic
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 152.
"Anything that happens to me as a writer has been precipitated by an action of my own."
–– Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938), American writer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 155.
"Art ... must do something more than give pleasure: it should relate to our own life so as to increase our energy of spirit."
–– Sir Kenneth Clark (1903-1983), British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 157.
"In Celtic understanding the soul is "the place where the imagination lives.""
–– John O'Donohue (1956-2008), Irish author, priest, philosopher, poet
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 165.
"At its root, creativity is not about success or failure. It's a spiritual path. It's mystery."
–– Clarissa Pinkola Estés (b. 1945), American author and psychoanalyst
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2008, p. 165.
"A note can be as small as a pin or as big as the world; it depends on your imagination."
–– Thelonious Monk (1917-1982), American jazz pianist and composer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 175.
"If you don't make mistakes, you're not working on hard enough problems. And that's a big mistake."
–– Frank Wilczek (b. 1951), American theoretical physicist and mathematician
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 176.
"Dance in the body you have."
–– Agnes DeMille (1905-1993), American dancer and choreographer
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2009, p. 179.
"Education is what remains after the facts are gone."
–– Francis Bacon (1909-1992), Irish-born British painter
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 189.
"Remember our etymologies: experience means almost the same as experiment, and an expert is one who is good at experiencing in a particular situation. Learning by experience is taking in the successful gleanings from standard artistic practice the improvisations between you and the real world."
–– Eric Booth, American actor, teacher, and author
Source: Eric Booth. The Everyday Work of Art. Naperville, Illinois: Sourcebooks, 1997; p. 152.
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 191.
"Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think."
–– Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), British statesman
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 89.
"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.
"Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves."
–– Carl Jung (1875-1961), Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist
via: Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2007, p. 84.
"If everyone was satisfied with themselves there would be no heroes."
–– Mark Twain (1835-1910), pen name of Samuel Clemens, American writer
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2006, p. 80.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
–– Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), American Baptist minister and civil rights activist
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2006, p. 78.
"Show me a completely contented person and I'll show you a failure."
–– Thomas Edison (1847-1931), American inventor and businessman
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2006, p. 78.
"The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might of the force of habit –– and must understand that practices are what create habits. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him –– and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires."
"An artist is a person who thinks more than there is to think, feels more than there is to feel, and sees more than there is to see."
–– John Oliver Hobbes (1867-1906), American-born, British novelist and dramatist, pen-name of Pearl Mary Teresa Richards
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2006, p. 40.
"It is easier to try to be better than you are than to be who you are."
–– Marion Woodman (1928-2018), Canadian psychoanalyst and writer
Source: Oliver Burkeman. Meditations for Mortals. Toronto: Allen Lane/Penguin Random House Canada, 2024; p. v.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 33.
"Work is love made visible."
–– Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931), Lebanese-American writer and poet
via Commonplace Book 2006-2009, 2006, p. 5.
"The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook."
–– William James (1842-1910), American psychologist and philosopher
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 33.
"A photograph is ... a moment. But a painting is a monument."
–– Ann-Marie MacDonald (b. 1958), Canadian playwright, author, actress, and broadcast host
Source: Ann-Marie MacDonald. Fayne. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2022; p. 153.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 31.
"We cannot change anything unless we accept it."
–– Carl Jung (1875-1961), Swiss psychiatrist and psychologist
Source: Oliver Burkeman. Meditations for Mortals. Toronto: Allen Lane/Penguin Random House Canada, 2024; p. 60.
via: Commonplace Book 2024, 2025, p. 34.
"Ideas come along in the strangest way when you just pay attention."
–– David Lynch (1946-2025), American filmmaker, visual artist, musician and actor
Source: David Lynch. Catching the Big Fish: Meditation, Consciousness, and Creativity. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2006; p. 77.
via Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2013, p. 39.
"No pressure, no diamonds."
–– Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher
via Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2013, p. 27.
"[C]reativity follows from positive emotion. The more positive a person's mood on a given day, the more creative thinking he did the next day –– and, to some extent, the day after that –– even taking into account his moods on those later days. This may be due to what psychologists call an incubation effect. Pleasant moods stimulate greater breadth in thinking –– greater cognitive variation –– which can linger and even build over a day or more. Such cognitive variation can lead to new insights at work. In other words, although new ideas might emerge soon after you experience a positive emotion, you might find them popping up much later."
–– Teresa Amabile (b. 1950), American academic and author; and Steven J. Kramer, American independent researcher, writer, and consultant
Source: Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer. The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2011; p. 52-53.
via Commonplace Book 2013-2014, 2013, p. 27-28.
"You must allow yourself to outgrow and depart from certain eras of your life with a gentle sort of ruthlessness."
–– Katy Maxwell, Girl of the Earth
Source: Words of Women, Instagram
"The reason most people fail instead of succeed is they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment."
–– Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), French military officer and statesman
via: Sketchbook Q 17, 2024, p. 40.
"We think we understand the rules when we become adults but what we really experience is a narrowing of the imagination."
–– David Lynch (1946-2025), American filmmaker, visual artist, musician and actor
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2025, p. 47.
"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things."
–– Henry Miller (1891-1980), American writer
"The things you do badly are as much part of your style as the things you do well."
–– Martin Scorsese (b. 1942), American filmmaker
"Focus like a laser, not a flashlight."
–– Michael Jordan (b. 1963), American professional basketball player and businessman
Source: Jeff Karp. LIT: Use Nature's Playbook to Energize Your Brain, Spark Ideas, and Ignite Action. New York: William Morrow, 2024; p. 85.
"Every time a gift is given it is enlivened and regenerated through the new spiritual life it engenders both in the giver and in the recipient."
–– Margaret Atwood (b. 1939), Canadian writer, environmental activist and inventor
Source: Robin Wall-Kimmerer. The Serviceberry. New York: Scribner, 2024; p. 50.
"Leisure without learning is death."
–– Seneca (4 BC - AD 65), Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman
"Conventionality is not morality."
–– Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855), English writer
"You will never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine."
–– Darren Hardy (b. 1971), American author and publisher
"Instead of looking at things, look between things."
–– John Baldessari (1931-2020), American painter and conceptual artist
"There's no mystery in art. Do the things you can see, they will show you what you cannot see."
–– Isak Dinesen, pen name of Baroness Karen Christenze von Blixen-Finecke (1885-1962), Danish writer
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2025, p. 46.
"Just slow things down and it becomes more beautiful."
–– David Lynch (1946-2025), American filmmaker, visual artist, musician and actor
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2025, p. 47.
"I've heard people say that it takes 10,000 hours to master your style or your line or something, but I think it takes 10,000 hours to become boring and mediocre. The moment you master something is the moment you stop being creative."
–– Gareth Brookes, British artist
Source: Austin Kleon, Instagram Stories, January 2, 2025
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2024, 2025, p. 45.
"The best cure for the body is a quiet mind."
–– Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), French military officer and statesman
via: Sketchbook Q 17, 2024, p. 9.
"People tend to forget that play is serious."
–– David Hockney (b. 1937), English painter and printmaker
Source: David Hockney. Independent.co.uk, Friday October 15, 1993
"The formula for originality is very simple –– put together two things that were not together before."
–– Orhan Pamuk (b. 1952), Turkish writer and academic
"If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine; it is lethal."
–– Paulo Coelho (b. 1947), Brazilian writer
"I don't think people understand the physical toll that emotional labor takes."
–– Brené Brown (b. 1965), American writer and professor
"And suddenly you know it's time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings."
–– Meister Eckhart (1260-1328), German Catholic theologian, philosopher, and mystic
"When I cannot bear outer pressures any more, I begin to put order in my belongings. I get satisfaction from perfect order in my papers, in my clothes, in the house. I carry this to excess. As if unable to organize and control my life, I seek to exert this on the world of objects. There is a mania for discarding the useless, uncluttering the house, beautifying, tidying, a mania for super efficiency. I spend hours on this. It gives me peace."
–– Anaïs Nin (1903-1977), French-Cuban American writer
"The most common form of despair is not being who you are."
–– Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855), Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, and social critic
"Don't let your mind set limits that aren't really there."
–– Zadie Smith (b. 1975), English writer
"Recognize that 'unlearning' is the highest form of learning."
–– Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (1207-1273), Persian poet and Sufi mystic; interpretation by Coleman Barks (b. 1937), American poet
"It is clear to me now that nothing can save us from the crisis of beginning."
–– Elizabeth Cooperman, American writer, Woman Pissing
Source: Austin Kleon, Instagram, January 1, 2025.
"To be a surrealist means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been."
–– René Magritte (1898-1967), Belgian surrealist painter
"Nobody says "Picasso, the male artist."
–– Patti Smith (b. 1946), American writer, poet, singer-songwriter and musician
Source: women in art, Instagram, December 31, 2024.
"We become what we think about most of the time."
–– Earl Nightingale (1921-1989), American motivational speaker and author
Source: the brain coach, Instagram stories, January 3, 2025.
"Be curious, sensitive and disobedient."
–– Gaetano Pesce (1939-2024), Italian architect
Source: Elle Decor Italia, April 2023, p. 397.
via: Travel Journal, 2023, p. 58.
"You can do it like it's a great weight on you or you can do it like it's part of the dance."
–– Ram Dass (1931-2019), American spiritual leader, psychologist, and writer
Source: Daily Philosopher, Instagram, October 22, 2024
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2024, p. 47.
"The art of being sometimes audacious and sometimes very prudent is the secret of success."
–– Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), French military officer and statesman
via: Sketchbook N 14, 2024, p. 44.
"Who are the people who came before you? Have a little hall of fame of those people. Thinking of your work as a continuation or a lineage of those people helps sustain you on the days when it gets tough."
–– Linda Liukas (b. 1986), Finnish author, educator and illustrator
Source: The Creative Independent, Instagram December 11, 2024
