Florence Scovel Shinn Quotes

It's always better just to do work that you're really proud of and work that you enjoy because really all you have are the choices you make and that's it and who knows after that. I think that's what I love in acting.

We are living in a world where the individual must learn to command the raw materials of expression. He must not be dependent all the time on the ready-made, the finished product. It's the transferring, the changing of the raw into what is the expression of your own self – the whole joy and satisfaction and frustration of life is built into this.

Self-expression is the dominant necessity of human nature.

The whole duty of a writer is to please and satisfy himself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one.

There are probably seven persons, in all, who really like my work; and they are enough. I should write even if I were the only patient reader, for my aim is merely self-expression.

I want to do work where I have something to say.

I feel terribly vulnerable and 'not-myself' when I'm not writing.

Play music that means something to you. Make it happen for yourself.

For instance, I may bring a certain feminist perspective to my songwriting, because that's how I see life. I'm interested in art, poetry, and music. As that kind of artist, I can do anything. I can say anything. It's about self-expression. It knows no package - there's no such thing. That's what being an artist is.

A writer, or a beginning writer, is faced by the huge walls of self-consciousness. Most people think, "What if I say the wrong thing? What if I don't sound erudite and sophisticated? I'll be considered a fool." In time, with a lot of practice, you realize that's your foolishness is your gift.

To banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyze vitality.

The creative process must be explored... as the expression of the normal people in the act of actualizing themselves.

I hope that my work makes a difference because I think that's why I do it.

If one were to live his life fully and completely were to give form to every feeling, expression to every thought, reality to every dream.

I was getting in trouble at school. I wasn't happy. The school was very much a school that created people for commerce and it wasn't an arty school.

Writing has nothing to do with publishing. Nothing. People get totally confused about that. You write because you have to - you write because you can't not write. The rest is show-business. I can't state that too strongly. Just write - worry about the rest of it later, if you worry at all. What matters is what happens to you while you're writing the story, the poem, the play. The rest is show-business.

Follow your heart, and your pleasure in art. Don’t do what you think is going to be making you money, or what you’re parents want you to do, or what that beautiful girl or guy thinks you should be doing. Do what you love. It’s going to lead to where you want to go. Go out there and make the world more beautiful. I know you can.

Genius is nothing more or less than childhood recovered by will, a childhood how equipped for self-expression with an adult's capacities.

I don't know that I ever wanted greatness, on its own. It seems rather like wanting to be an engineer, rather than wanting to design something--or wanting to be a writer, rather than wanting to write. It should be a by-product, not a thing in itself. Otherwise, it's just an ego trip.

For many artists fame complements the value of creative self-expression. Ludwig van Beethoven loved composing music, but he probably would have enjoyed it less if no one ever listened to the product.

Of course it's super special to create your own records; it really is a part of my self.

I do podcasts for the same reasons I do stand-up comedy. I love it, and I don't care if anybody else gets it.

I come alive when I'm painting. I like to work in oils and acrylics, and the full sensory engagement and self-expression is very stimulating to me.

I never get too many problems. You can never please everyone anyway, obviously. And some people take the easy route and just play the greatest hits, and their audience is happy to hear that as well, and that's fine, but it wouldn't please me. But it doesn't trouble me.

I still play music for the same reasons as when I first started; for the energy, the feeling, the interaction with others. Not for the money, ego or greed.