Alice Walker Quotes

In order for me to write, I have to experience life. I write the songs based on real life, and I perform them from a very real place.

I write about what I know, what I live, what I observe.

Whatever I'm writing comes organically out of my life.

My ideas usually come not at my desk writing but in the midst of living.

You've got to live life to write a book about it.

How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.

I never want kids to walk away after a school presentation and say, 'I met a writer today.' I want them to say, 'I am a writer.'

The point of life is not to get anywhere—it is to notice that you are, and have always been, already there. You are always and forever in the moment of pure creation. The point of life therefore is to create—who and what you are, and then to experience that.

Just write the best you can about the things that concern you most. I never lose sight of the fact that just being is fun.

I just live my life and try to be present. When I'm present in the moment and something comes, I can capture it, because it doesn't come from me, it's out there.

In order to write about life first you must live it.

Life makes writing poetry necessary to prove I really was paying attention.

I don't think about art when I'm working. I try to think about life.

And if you don't live, you have nothing to write about.

I have created a life style that supports contemplation, service to words.

If I don't feel like writing today or for a few days, I don't. And I don't think about it. It is not an obligation-it is the greatest privilege.

Experience, as a desire for experience, does not come off. We must not study ourselves while having an experience.

My lyrics come from my experiences growing up in life, trying to find out and express who I am. That's basically it. I'm not trying to be a prophet or anything like that. I'm just reflecting on life.

It is always easier to write from the heart and deal with things in the present.

I really try to wake up with my music the same as I do with my life, and that is with no expectations. I just feel what I feel that day and follow it.

My life. The life I'm living that's where all my inspiration comes from. Real life experiences.

My life is an open pamphlet.

I'm always writing and reflecting on life. I want to suck it all in.

You don't have to go fight bulls in Spain like Hemingway to write something great, or go off to war. It's right under your nose.

I just try to show up and be relaxed and present and honest. And that's my only trick. And sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Honestly, sometimes it really doesn't work.