artistic work Quotes

“He liked the works of his friends, which is beautiful as loyalty but can be disastrous as judgment.”

“The work wants to be made, and it wants to be made through you.”

“A creative life is an amplified life. It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Living in this manner—continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you—is a fine art, in and of itself.”

“Creativity is sacred, and it is not sacred. What we make matters enormously, and it doesn’t matter at all. We toil alone, and we are accompanied by spirits. We are terrified, and we are brave. Art is a crushing chore and a wonderful privilege. Only when we are at our most playful can divinity finally get serious with us. Make space for all these paradoxes to be equally true inside your soul, and I promise—you can make anything.”

“But never delude yourself into believing that you require someone else’s blessing (or even their comprehension) in order to make your own creative work.”

“I could not find the food I liked. If I had found it, believe me, I would not have caused a sensation, and I would have stuffed myself just like you and all the others.”

“No one, not even the starvation artist himself knew how great his achievement really was, and his heart grew heavy.”

″[…] he felt no limits to his ability to starve.”

“No one had any reason to be dissatisfied with what he had seen – no one, that is, except for the starvation artist, he alone, always.”

“I’ll never forget this time he wanted to do a portrait of me. He always used to say to me - serious as the devil, too - ‘Eddie, you’re not beautiful according to conventional standards, but there’s something in your face I wanna catch.’ Serious as the devil he’d say it, I mean. Well. I only posed for him this once.”

“Mr. Slinger was as sharp as a tack. He wore artistic shirts. He wore glasses on a chain around his neck. And he wore a different colored tie for each day of the week.”