Marguerite Duras Quotes

I was writing from the age of 10, and I was never really into going to discos and dances and stuff. I never told anyone at school that I did that because I feared it would alienate me even more.

Growing up, I didn't know any writers and felt somewhat isolated.

To be a musician, especially a singer-songwriter - well, you don't do that if you have a thriving social life. You do it because there's an element of alienation in your life.

All I know is when I start getting serious about songwriting... it's like a playground. All responsibilities slip away and you're with your essence. There can be delight there and self-discovery. You can dance there... I think of it as my serious playground.

Words, yes, formulating things, creating something from your heart, it is something very necessary, yes.

The greatness of art is not to find what is common but what is unique.

It doubles your perception, to write from the point of view of someone you're not.

The pen is very quick for getting stuff from your brain to the page. I can do hieroglyphics in the margin. There are days when I really enjoy the flow of ink. I mean, nice pen, ink straight on to the page.

When I finally gave up any hope of doing anything representative of the American family, I actually seemed to have tapped into other people's weirdness in that way.

The reason there's no modern-day Shakespeare is because he didn't have anything to do except sit in a room with a candle and think.

Authors are ordinary people who usually start to live apart, in the imagination, because they don't fit in with normal, healthy people.

What my character is or how many jails I have lounged in, or wards or walls or wassails, how many lonely-heart poetry readings I have dodged, is beside the point. A man's soul or lack of it will be evident with what he can carve upon a white sheet of paper.

Every writer is an outsider.

For me, it is freedom, freedom from everything: when I write, I'm not a woman. I'm not a Muslim. I'm not a Moroccan. I can reinvent myself, and I can reinvent the world.

You can be whoever you want to be when you are writing songs.

My dad was a poet. He saw the world through unique glasses, with simplicity, spirituality, and humor.

I think the whole glory of writing lies in the fact that it forces us out of ourselves and into the lives of others.

Writing is the starting point from which all goodness (and crappiness) flows.

I keep interested and I keep my eyes wide open...I try to read as much as possible...try to go to places that are off the beaten path...and I love to listen in on other peoples conversations...all the things that are floating around out there and I regurgitate it with my perspective...lyrically and musically.

During my lifetime I have met dozens of writers and photographers in dozens of different countries. But I have encountered no one who could both write and photograph with the artistry of Robert Vavra.

I would advise puppeteering for any artist. It's a way to break down pretensions. It's a sculpture that can talk. It's a painting that can talk. And it's pure play. I think every artist needs to stay in touch with the idea of playing. The artist should always be playing, always. All art is performance.

Having imagination, it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that, if you were unimaginative, would take you only a minute. Or you might not write the paragraph at all.

I'm hungry for purpose. I'm looking for still that reason that I bought a guitar and started a band, to fulfill a purpose, to manifest destiny as to who I am and why I am the way I am, and what I do. I think it's still about the music, the song and the story.

As an aspiring artist, you should strive for originality of vision. Have something to say and a fresh way of saying it. No story is worth the writing, no picture worth the making, if it’s not the work of the imagination.

Writing has always allowed me to escape. I was a very lonely child. Because I was very socially awkward, I would always have trouble making friends. And so reading and writing allowed me to have friends and to have an active imaginary life that really sort of kept me sane.