St. Francis of Assisi: "He who works..."

"He who works with his hands is a laborer.
He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman.
He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist."

 —St. Francis of Assisi

Itzhak Perlman: "One must always practice..."

"One must always practice slowly. If you learn something slowly, you forget it slowly."

–Itzhak Perlman ("the thinking violinist")

Neil Gaiman: "Go and make interesting mistakes..."

"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's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "First of all..."

"First of all, when you start out on a career in the arts you have no idea what you're doing. This is great. People who know what they're doing know the rules and they know what is possible and what is impossible. You do not. And you should not. The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can. If you don't know it's impossible, it's easier to do. And because nobody's done it before, they haven't made up rules to stop anyone from doing that particular thing again."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "If you have an idea..."

"If you have an idea of what you want to make, what you were put here to do, then just go do that. And that's much harder than it sounds. And sometimes in the end so much easier than you might imagine... "

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "A freelance life..."

"A freelance life, a life in the arts, is sometimes like putting messages in bottles on a desert island and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it and put something in a bottle that will wash its way back to you. Appreciation, or a commission, or money, or love. And you have to accept that you may put out hundreds of things for every bottle that winds up coming back."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "Make your art..."

"Make your art. Do the stuff that only you can do... The moment that you feel that, just possibly, you're walking down the street naked, exposing too much of your heart and your mind and what exists on the inside, showing too much of yourself, that's the moment you may be starting to get it right."


–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "I wish you luck..."

"I wish you luck. Luck is useful. Often you will discover that the harder you work and the more wisely you work, the luckier you will get. But there is luck. And it helps."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "Make Good Art..."

"Remember, whatever discipline you're in... you have one thing that's unique: you have the ability to make art. And for me, that's been a lifesaver... When things get tough this is what you should do: Make Good Art. Do what only you can do best: Make Good Art."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "The problems of failure..."

"The problems of failure can be hard. The problems of success can be harder because nobody warns you about them. "

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "I tended to do..."

"I tended to do anything as long as it felt like an adventure, and to stop when it felt like work, which meant that life did not feel like work."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Neil Gaiman: "I decided I'd do..."

"I decided I'd do my best in the future not to write books just for the money. If you didn't get the money, then you didn't have anything. And if I did work I was proud of, and I didn't get the money, at least I'd have the work. Every now and then I forget that rule. And whenever I do, the universe kicks me - hard - and reminds me."

–Neil Gaiman's commencement speech on the life of an artist

Larry and Andy Wachowski: "Artists use lies to..."

"Artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up."

—Larry and Andy Wachowski, Evey in "V for Vendetta"

Steve Wozniak: "Most inventors and engineers..."

“Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me – they’re shy and they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists.  And artists work best alone where they can control an invention’s design without a lot of other people designing it for marketing or some other committee. I don’t believe anything really revolutionary has been invented by committee. If you’re that rare engineer who’s an inventor and also an artist, I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone. You’re going to be best able to design revolutionary products and features if you’re working on your own. Not on a committee. Not on a team.”

— from Steve Wozniak's memoir iWoz, quoted in Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Kwame Kwei-Armah: "Our job as artists..."

“Our job as artists is to treat the world that we’ve come into with integrity. Otherwise, we’re bastardizing other cultures so that we can be looked upon as access for others who may be more economically empowered. There’s no honor in that. But there is honor in explaining a way of life, or explaining a dysfunction, or explaining a morality, or exposing or helping enter into a world that makes you understand human nature in a way that you may never have before.”

-Kwame Kwei-Armah, the new Artistic Director at Baltimore's CenterStage, from an interview on www.dctheatrescene.com, The Creative Source on Heading CenterStage

Ann Patchett: "Not everyone can be..."

"Not everyone can be the artist. There have to be those who witness the art, who love and appreciate what they have been privileged to see."

—Ann Patchett, Bel Canto 

Julia Cameron: "His love of music..."

"His love of music shimmers off of him."

—Julia Cameron, The Creative Life

Julia Cameron: "I feel like writing..."

"I feel like writing, but I am afraid I have lost my voice."

—Julia Cameron, The Creative Life

Julia Cameron: "It's so full of..."

"It's so full of promise.  As it stands, it's halfway terrific and halfway flawed."

—Julia Cameron, The Creative Life

Julia Cameron: "The artist's life can..."

"The artist's life can be tumultuous, and yet I chose it - and choose it again on a daily basis."

—Julia Cameron, The Creative Life