I love collecting these ...I need to collect these to keep me going and to tell me I'm on the right track. Most of the author's quotes come from a book I am reading called "How I write: the secret lives of Authors" Dan Crow, ed.So I thought I'd share what I have come across in my reading...
"Remembering I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart". Steve Jobs, Founder of Apple (diagnosed with a terminal illness)
"We mostly yearn for the same things: a bit of stillness, a reminder of whatever it is that goes through kid's heads when they beam at you for no reason and a chance to tentatively step off the conveyor belt...just to see what happens next". Sarah Wilson, TV Personality.
"The poetry is the not quite calculable thing that has to grow and bind and transform the picture once it's done". Alan Hollinghurst, Author.
"Any writer who knows what he's doing isn't doing very much". Nelson Algren, US, Author.
"The furthermost out you can go is the best place to be". Stanley Elkin, Author.
"Go out as far as you can go, and start from there". Albert Einstein, Physicist
"Armed with all the imagination and wit and heart you can muster, you follow the "charmer's" pipes into the dark forest, naively confident that, sooner or later, should you survive, you'll be led to those places where treasure is buried. To do it differently, to begin with a carefully calculated outline, for example, is to become little more than a manufacturer". Tom Robbins, Author.
"When you're inside writer's block it's horrible because you're not you anymore. You're this person who used to be you. Now you're this person who's going to have to get a day job". (GJ: Sound Familiar?) Douglas, Copeland, Author.
"For me, to write anything worth reading I can't be in control. My conscious mind, the part that cares what critics might hate or readers might like, has to get out of the way for me to get anything done. My subconscious does all the heavy lifting..." Melissa Bank, Author.
"You have to concede that when a novel clicks...some alchemy has been achieved of which you are not entirely master". Lionel Shriver, Author.
"Believe you can, believe you can't. Either way, you're right" Rob Palmer, British explorer.
And last but not least, note to self: Stop trying... it's exhausting. Just keep doing.
Image: Gabrielle Jones Rockface 2008, 110 x 83cm
Do you have anymore inspiring Quotes? Add them here in the comments section
I have a blank envelope that has the word 'judgements' with a circle and a line crossing through it. Everytime I begin to beat myself up I look at it. Another quote I like is from Carl Jung; 'Whatever you reject comes back a monster'it means a lot to me for reasons I won't go into here. My most favourite though, and this one relates directly to painting in my opinion, goes something like "if it's challenging you then you're doing the best work you can -if it's easy then chances are you could do better" I don't know who told me that or where I read it but, well, it helps.
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