Cole Porter Quotes

People always ask what my inspiration is, and it's never something that's easily explained.

I always look for inspiration, and the creativity of artists is an essential element to my life, my work, and my happiness.

You don't get inspiration sitting at a drawing board or in front of your computer.

The writing part of my life never changes, because that's just when the inspiration comes.

Inspiration arrives as a packet of material to be delivered.

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.

Inspiration is an awakening, a quickening of all man's faculties, and it is manifested in all high artistic achievements.

A lot of things trigger my inspiration. It can be the most banal things.

You do things when the opportunities come along. I've had periods in my life when I've had a bundle of ideas come along, and I've had long dry spells. If I get an idea next week, I'll do something. If not, I won't do a damn thing.

The most valiant thing you can do as an artist is inspire someone else to be creative.

A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.

You never know where your influences are going to come from, or where you're going to find your inspiration.

All this talk about inspiration and moment is nonsense.

People can be inspired the way I've been inspired by music.

Yes, and I can sit down on a white piece of paper and work because I don't believe too much into inspiration, only I'm waiting for inspiration, work and then inspiration may come. It's a little too easy to say that.

Art, a book, a painting, a song, can definitely inspire change, whether it's a small change or a big change but you know there's novels I've read or a scene in a film that I've seen where I definitely inspired something and made a change or addressed an issue in my life or done something cliche like make a phone call.

Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses.

In my experience a painting is not made with colors and paint at all. I don't know what a painting is; who knows what sets off even the desire to paint?

I don't paint every day. I'm not that motivated. I don't do anything the same every day.

Most of the time one is discouraged by the work, but now and again by some grace something stands out and invites you to work on it, to elaborate it or animate it in some way. It's a mysterious process.

All that time, you go, 'God, am I slipping away here?' And then something great happens, you get a call, and work begets more work.

I think artists sometimes go back to something when we never should, for many different reasons. You hear a lot of stories that make you feel good about the work and the project; sometimes you try to relive that, like, 'I want to make a part two.'

The artist is inherently a romantic to some degree, and as such, I believe in a muse. But I don't try to analyze too much where it comes from.

We've always tried to inspire ourselves, so to speak. In the beginning, that could mean just hearing your own songs played back to you for the very first time.

I find a lot of inspiration through visuals. When I was 12, I saw Aurora's 'Runaway' music video. Something inside me clicked, like, 'That is what I want to do, no matter whether it goes anywhere or not.'