Quotes about Artistry

The function of the artist is to invent, not to chronicle.

We are born makers. We move what we're learning from our heads to our hearts through our hands.

The soul of the artist cannot remain hidden.

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short." [ Letter to Harrison Blake ; November 16, 1857]

If you can speak what you will never hear,—if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things

Thoreau thought obsessively about time and the various ways it could be manipulated by writing; he collapses the two years he spent at Walden into one for the sake of "convenience," but surely also for the sake of artistry.

The best thing is to always keep honest people around, because when you have a bunch of yes men around that know that you're making a mistake but let you go on with it, that's when it ruins your mind state as an artist.

Writing is a form of mischief.

We paint a slow picture. You can see the brushstrokes. We don't get to the point, and sometimes when we do, our readers don't notice, in fact. It's so couched in nuance, it can fly right over a person's head. 'What was that you said? I couldn't quite make it out.'

I want a life that makes music - not just practices the piano.

The artist needs no religion beyond his work.

Write only if you cannot live without writing. Write only what you alone can write.