Wise Words

Thoughts on creativity from artistic people born on December 6:

from Italian courier, diplomat, and writer Baldassare Castiglione (Il libro del cortegiano) (1478-1529):

Practise in everything a certain nonchalance that shall conceal design and show that what is done and said is done without effort and almost without thought.

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from English mystical poet and author Evelyn Underhill (Mysticism, The Mystic Way, Theophanies, Worship) (1875-1941):

Art is the link between appearance and reality.

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from American poet Joyce Kilmer (Trees and other Poems) (1886-1918):

At present, I am a poet trying to be a soldier. To tell the truth, I am not interested in writing nowadays, except in so far as writing is the expression of something beautiful ... The only sort of book I care to write about the war is the sort people will read after the war is over—a century after it is over.

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from English writer Sir Osbert Sitwell (Before the Bombardment, Left Hand! Right Hand!) (1892-1969):

For Poetry is the wisdom of the blood,/ That scarlet tree within, which has the power/ To make dull words bud forth and burst in flower.

The artist, like the idiot or clown, sits on the edge of the world, and a push may send him over it.

Poetry is like fish: if it's fresh, it's good; if it's stale, it's bad; and if you're not certain, try it on the cat.

The only difference between an artist and a lunatic is, perhaps, that the artist has the restraint or courtesy to conceal the intensity of his obsession from all except those similarly afflicted.

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from German-born American photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt (Life, Witness to Our Time, The Eye of Eisenstaedt) (1898-1995):

I enjoy traveling and recording far-away places and people with my camera. But I also find it wonderfully rewarding to see what I can discover outside my own window. You only need to study the scene with the eyes of a photographer.

I don’t use an exposure meter. My personal advice is: Spend the money you would put into such an instrument for film. Buy yards of film, miles of it. Buy all the film you can get your hands on. And then experiment with it. That is the only way to be successful in photography. Test, try, experiment, feel your way along. It is the experience, not technique, which counts in camera work first of all. If you get the feel of photography, you can take fifteen pictures while one of your opponents is trying out his exposure meter.

All photographers have to do, is find and catch the story-telling moment.

People will never understand the patience a photographer requires to make a great photograph, all they see is the end result. I can stand in front of a leaf with a dew drop, or a rain drop, and stay there for ages just waiting for the right moment. Sure, people think I'm crazy, but who cares? I see more than they do!

I dream that someday the step between my mind and my finger will no longer be needed. And that simply by blinking my eyes, I shall make pictures. Then, I think, I shall really have become a photographer.

We are only beginning to learn what to say in a photograph. The world we live in is a succession of fleeting moments, any one of which might say something significant.

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from English poet and editor Michael Roberts (These Our Matins, The Faber Book of Modern Verse) (1902-1948):

The poet is always concerned with achieving a balance between the inner and the outer world; it is his business to hold in a single thought reality and justice.

A good work of art reveals something that is in reality. A new metaphor, a new myth, a new type of character, all these reveal a feature of reality for which we previously had no name.

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from American Grammy-winning jazz great Dave Brubeck (Songs of Joy & Peace, Lifetime Achievement) (1920-2012):

Art may not have the power to change the course of history, but it can provide a perspective on historical events that needs to be heard, even if it's seldom heeded. After all the temporary influences that once directed the course of history have vanished, great art survives and continues to speak to each generation.

There's a way of playing safe, there's a way of using tricks and there's the way I like to play which is dangerously where you're going to take a chance on making mistakes in order to create something you haven't created before.

And there is a time where you can be beyond yourself. You can be better than your technique. You can be better than most of your usual ideas. And this is a whole other category that you can get into.

When things are going well, I hate to quit.

When you hear Bach or Mozart, you hear perfection. Remember that Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were great improvisers. I can hear that in their music.

I'm always hoping for the nights that are inspired where you almost have an out of body experience.

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from American minister Nicky Cruz (Run Baby Run, One Holy Fire, Soul Obsession, The Devil Has No Mother) (born 1938):

You can argue with someone's opinion, but you can't argue with their story.

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from Austrian Nobel Prize-winning novelist, playwright, poet, and essayist Peter Handke (Publikumsbeschimpfung, Kaspar, Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter, Wunschloses Unglück, Der Himmel über Berlin) (born 1942):

I am a writer. I am rooted in Tolstoy, I am rooted in Homer, I am rooted in Cervantes.

You can't be silent and create silence in being silent. So you have to create silence or, rather, the effect of silence, through words.

If a nation loses its storytellers, it loses its childhood.

The biggest achievement is to create silence. I think every real writer who has a passion to do justice to the world thinks this way.

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from American Young Adult novelist Jason Reynolds (When I Was the Greatest, Track series, Long Way Down, Look Both Ways) (born 1983):

I just want young people to read my books and feel cared for, feel safe, feel like there's someone else in the world who understands—or at least acknowledges—your existence.

Writing is like any other sort of sport. In order for you to get better at it, you have to exercise the muscle.

Dreams don’t have timelines, deadlines, and aren’t always in straight lines.

Little. Don’t ever let someone call your life, your dreams, little. Hear me?

You, my dear, should spend more time in a library. It’s not just a hiding place, but also the place where the chases happen.