Herman Melville Quotes

I used to play works in progress to people, but now I wait 'til it's finished, because you make excuses all the time: 'Well, there's gonna be an orchestra on it.' Rather than make excuses, wait 'til it's finished, and then they can say they don't like it.

Part of creating is understanding that there is always more to do; nothing is ever completely finished.

Books and movies are never finished, only surrendered.

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

Many men build as cathedrals are built-the part nearest the ground finished, but that part which soars toward heaven, the turrets and the spires, forever incomplete.

It is wise to seek immortality for time defeats all other ambitions.

Let your poem be kept nine years.

You cheer my heart, who build as if Rome would be eternal.

How did I change my life? I wanted things. I wanted women and I wanted to write books.

When an architect is asked what his best building is, he usually answers, "The next one."

Artists who approach perfection do not have many ideas.

Books succeed; and lives fail.

... I must begin at whatever pace is possible, to work on the book of my own that i vaguely keep assuming lies at the end of the rainbow. It is after all my rainbow and if I don't do it no one else will...Survival is the secret so you really can't afford to doubt yourself for long because you are all you've got. The only thing to do is to go the limit with it. Exceed.

The paths of glory at least lead to the Grave, but the paths of duty may not get you Anywhere.

I've always been a writer, actually. Not many people assume that, but I kinda keep quiet about anything that I do until I'm ready to show it. It keeps me humble and also makes me work towards a goal.

Art is a by-product of an honest and successful attempt to do something well.

Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.

Did you stop because it was good enough, or could have done more - but then maybe ruined it too? Sometimes you finish because you've gone too far.

You're always striving to play that perfect match.

I don't measure success by how many buildings have my name on it.

O thou who art able to write a book which once in the two centuries or oftener there is a man gifted to do, envy not him whom they name city-builder, and inexpressibly pity him whom they name conqueror or city-burner.

A book is never finished; it's abandoned.

Every first draft is perfect, because all a first draft has to do is exist.

Never settle for anything less than your best.