In light of the start of another year, I want to share a few quotes from some of the most inspiring creators whose words are both personal and wise. They are a reminder of the fact that life is a long journey, that it’s both challenging and unexpected, a constant birthing and rebirthing process where we must continually overcome the obstacles that might impede our focus as to what’s most important — working on our craft. They’re also a call to being true to ourselves at every opportunity, knowing that it’s our responsibility to become the best that we can be, as cliché as that may sound.
The following words are the kind that have kept me moving forward over the years so that I may not fall prey to that deadening complacency caused by fear or the pain of failure; they are a call to living fully and fulfilling a destiny. May they also inspire you to contemplate the power and responsibility of our work as creators.
On the creative life being a magnificent, mysterious and unpredictable journey:
“A man does not go forward through life along a straight, horizontal path; he does not stop at the station indicated on a timetable; he goes off the track completely; sometimes he dives below and is lost for a time, or he takes to the air and is flung against the side of a steep cliff… what goes on at every moment in the life of each and every man is something forever unfathomable and inexhaustable to relate. No man can possibly relate the whole story, no matter how limited a fragment of his life he chooses to dwell on. It’s in this mysterious aura in which we live and struggle which interests me profoundly.” — Henry Miller, Henry Miller on Writing.
On resistance, fear and the imposter syndrome:
“Self-doubt can be an ally. This is because it serves as an indicator of aspiration. It reflects love, love of something we dream of doing, and desire, desire to do it. If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), “Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?” chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death… fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember our rule of thumb: The more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.” — Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
On the hope that our work has meaning and warrants attention:
“We know that the universe is infinite, expanding and strangely complete, that it lacks nothing we need, but in spite of that knowledge, the paradigm of human life is lack, loss, finality, a primitive doomsaying that has not been repealed by technology or medical science. The arts stand in the way of this doomsaying. Art objects. The nouns become an active force not a collector’s item… The cave wall paintings at Lascaux, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, the huge truth of Picasso, the quieter truth of Vanessa Bell, are part of the art that objects to the lie against life, against the spirit, that it is pointless and mean. The message coloured through time is not lack, but abundance. Not silence but many voices. Art, all art, is the communication cord that cannot be snapped by indifference or disaster. Against the daily death it does not die.” — Jeanette Winterson, Art Objects.
On the need for distraction-free time and silence:
“When I was a younger man, art was a lonely thing. No galleries, no collectors, no critics, no money. Yet it was a golden age, for we all had nothing to lose and a vision to gain. Today is is not quite the same. It is a time of tonnes of verbiage, activity, consumption. Which condition is better for the world at large I shall not venture to discuss. But I do know, that many of those who are driven to this life are desparately searching for those pockets of silence where we can root and grow. We must all hope we can find them.” — Mark Rothko, The Artist’s Reality
On working and love:
“… all work is empty save when there is love; when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God. And what is it to work with love? It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth. It is to build a house with affection, even as your beloved were to dwell in that house. It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit. It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit, And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.” — Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet.
May the new year bring great joy, good health and creative abundance to all of you who come here.