Jane Hirshfield Quotes

The importance of art is in the process of doing it, in the learning experience where the artist interacts with whatever is being made.

Writing is a subtle art that is reached mostly by self-discovery and experimentation.

I began observing, making paintings of my surroundings, taking a vow of silence, listening, composing music, writing, and making time for formal education. Then I started telling stories.

Music is my form of cleansing and introspection, so I have to grow in order to accomplish it.

I learned from my teachers but became through my music

The first song I wrote was the first song I remember thinking, "Well, maybe I can do something here." The very first one. By the second one I knew I could do something.

Art comes out of art; it begins with imitation, often in the form of parody, and it's in the process of imitating the voice of others that one comes to learn the sound of one's own.

When I am making music, I am growing at the same time, ain't I?

I was a creative kid; I wasn't really into sports, and sports in the South are a pretty big deal. It's like a religion down there. It was tough to find my footing, but thankfully, my parents discovered, through a neighbor, this theater called Young Actors Theater and signed me up for the summer program. It really was a gift. Even if a kid doesn't go into acting or the arts like I did, some kids need that environment to find themselves and find what they love to do. I'm so thankful for that theater; it was a big gift to me.

I attended the High School of Industrial Arts and studied with many great artists as painting is something that you never stop learning about. Actually, in high school there was a time that I was thinking about just concentrating on painting and I asked my music teacher, Mr. Sondberg, for advice and he encouraged me to stick with the music as well. So all my life I have been singing and painting.

The practise of an art is essential to the whole man, not because of what art is but because of what art does to the artist.

Making art is a rite of initiation. People change their souls.

Being a student in an art & design school, that was the moment for me, that was when I began to develop a lot of self-confidence and really come into my own.

The Artist's Way is a spiritual journey, a pilrimage home to the self.

Art is sort of an experimental station in which one tries out living.

To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.

I made a conscious decision to take my life and career in a different direction. I started working on a play, and also, by attending Burning Man for several years, I was incredibly stimulated by the art there. I increasingly wanted to be a part of it, and focused on what I wanted to say as an artist.

I've always loved so many different things about social media and music and art and fashion. I always loved it. But I've been too scared to jump into it, knowing that people would be upset about it. So that's why I hid from it. And now, I'm not afraid to be myself.

People should practice an art in order to make their souls grow and not to make money or become famous. Paint a picture. Write.

The arts and humanities teach us who we are and what we can be. They lie at the very core of the culture of which we're a part.

I love to draw, so I really want to go and study art. I've never done things for me. I've always done things for my career or for my family.

You can't control life. It doesn't wind up perfectly. Only-only art you can control. Art and masturbation. Two areas in which I am an absolute expert.

As children, we come into the world with a natural desire to both speak and draw. Society makes sure that we learn language properly, right from the beginning, but art is treated as a gift of innate genius, something we either have or don't.

Every artist has to face his own demons and evolve his own method of working.