William Stafford Quotes

How many of you are creative? I don't know, but for me, when you make a bunch of things over time and then you keep them... you forget. I look through my sketchbooks and I'm an audience for myself.

Do the thing itself. Don’t pay much mind to critics or what anyone says about it. Just do it, in any form possible, and watch others doing it. Take it in viscerally, get it by osmosis. Don’t ever read your own reviews, certainly not the good ones.

Art is that which comes to a man, and stands between himself and an implacable witness: the work.

Joanne' is a progression for me. It was about going into the studio and forgetting that I was famous.

Growth is a long term game, and the crappy days are more important.

Nobody will stop you from creating. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. That is the way to make your soul grow - whether there is a market for it or not! The kick of creation is the act of creating, not anything that happens afterward. I would tell all of you watching this screen: Before you go to bed, write a four line poem. Make it as good as you can. Don't show it to anybody. Put it where nobody will find it. And you will discover that you have your reward.

All human power is a compound of time and patience.

All you can do as an artist is do what you think is an extension of you. You put down on paper ... who you are. That's what being an artist is all about. And when it gets done, you don't look back at it and say, Oh, I could have done that better.

Fight with yourself when you paint, not with the model. A student is one who struggles with himself for order.

Before success comes patience... when we add to our accomplishments the element of hard work over a long period of time, we'll place a far greater value on the outcome. When we are patient, we'll have a greater appreciation of our success.

One poem or story doesn't matter one way or the other. It's the process of writing and life that matters.

Sometimes great stuff comes quickly and sometimes it doesn't and you've got to dig in for the long haul, don't loose heart, and wait for something to come along. Which is something you learn the more you do it, that if it isn't coming straight away just hang in there and something will come.

It's funny, I can see the science in how music is made with other artists, but it's hard for me to dissect my own thing.

I don't think you can be taught how to make art. You can be coached, but on a fundamental level you have to figure it out for yourself. You have to learn how your own mind works, figure out your own relationship to the art; you essentially have to invent it completely for yourself.

If something gets too easy... I want to do something else. But every album is going to be me, no matter what.

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.

The first requirement of politics is not intellect or stamina but patience. Politics is a very long run game and the tortoise will usually beat the hare.

I have been taking every step toward the future every day through making many paintings and sculptures with my deep emotion hidden in my life.

I have long begged off the question of my albums reflecting where I am 'at' personally. There is more inaccuracy in that approach than accuracy.

That's what's great about the arts. Everything inspires you, and you get a chance to grow from watching other people and how they do their work.

You have to wonder at times what you're doing out there. Over the years, I've given myself a thousand reasons to keep running, but it always comes back to where it started. It comes down to self-satisfaction and a sense of achievement.

It is important to make your own stuff. Even if you are not an actor, it is important to not stop involving yourself as a creative person.

It's such a private thing - 'my process' - I can just say that the work that I do is like therapy between me and the character.

Sometimes before we make a record I go back and listen to a few. It's equally humbling and uplifting.

In football you have an adversary; in cinema that adversary is yourself.