“For he who creates must be a world of his own and everything within himself and in the natural world that he has elected to follow.”— Rainer Maria Rilke, amazon.com
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. And you…”— Ira Glass, goodreads.com
“If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.”— Marc Chargall, marcchagallart.net
“Don’t ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”— Howard Thurman, goodreads.com
“Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here. Make. Good. Art.”— Neil Gaiman, youtube.com
“Whatever you do, the only secret is to believe in it and satisfy yourself. Don't do it for anyone else.”— Keith Harding, lettersofnote.com
“I have much confidence in you and even though you are tormenting yourself, the work you do is very good. Try to do some BAD work — the worst you can think of and see what happens but mainly relax and let everything go to hell — you are not responsible for the world — you are only responsible for you…”— Sol LeWitt, lettersofnote.com
“To Whom it May Inspire, I, like many of you artists out there, constantly shift between two states. The first (and far more preferable of the two) is white-hot, "in the zone" seat-of-the-pants, firing on all cylinders creative mode. This is when you lay your pen down and the ideas pour out like wine…”— Austin Madison, lettersofnote.com
“You've got to sell your heart, your strongest reactions, not the little minor things that only touch you lightly, the little experiences that you might tell at dinner. This is especially true when you begin to write, when you have not yet developed the tricks of interesting people on paper, when you…”— F. Scott Fitzgerald, lettersofnote.com
“No one put a gun to your head and ordered you to become a writer. One writes out of his own choice and must be prepared to take the rough spots along the road with a certain equanimity, though allowed some grinding of the teeth.”— Stanley Ellin, goodreads.com
“There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It…”— Martha Graham, goodreads.com
“Nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”— Calvin Coolidge, goodreads.com