Michael Leunig Quotes

Intelligence is nothing without delight.

Read a lot, live your life, and listen and watch, so that your mind fills up with millions of images.

Memory feeds imagination.

I have more questions than answers in this world as do most poets and writers. The field of memory we exist in is absolutely encompassing and is both a question and answer. It is memory that provides the heart with impetus, fuels the brain, and propels the corn plant from seed to fruit.

Better than the strength of men and horses is our wisdom.

Observation is an old man's memory.

Invention is the talent of youth, as judgment is of age.

A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.

We can invent only with memory.

I don't write about the same thing every time, everyday, different things are happening out there and if you take the time to look around, you can see that, then you can put it all together and tell the story.

Knowledge comes from the past, so it's safe. It is also out of date. It's the opposite of originality... Experience is the opposite of being creative.

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

There's something peculiar about writing fiction. It requires an interesting balance between seeing the world as a child and having the wisdom of a middle-aged person. The further you get from childhood and the experience of the teenage years, the greater the danger of losing that wellspring.

All books are either dreams or swords, you can cut, or you can drug, with words.

Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.

Memory is the mother of all wisdom.

A good question is never answered. It is not a bolt to be tightened into place but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.

What is the good of experience if you do not reflect?

Writing is good, thinking is better. Cleverness is good, patience is better.

People often ask where I get my inspiration from, and I always say I have no good answer because, well, inspiration comes from everywhere: people, places, memories.

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

Experience is definitely the high road once driven. It actually enhances the songwriting and song sourcing process.

Everyone needs solitude, especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation.

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.

Books give us insight into other people, other cultures. They make us laugh. They make us think. If they are really good, they make us believe that we are better for having read them. You don't read a book - you experience it. Every story opens up a new world.