David Amram Quotes

A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.

People wish to be poets more than they wish to write poetry, and that's a mistake. One should wish to celebrate more than one wishes to be celebrated.

You just get satisfaction from achieving something that you just don't get in any other way than from being creative.

Anything is an art if you do it at the level of an art.

It's great to watch someone get the most out of what they can do, whether they're a beautiful performer or just a really gritty performer. It's something to behold.

There are all kinds of people who I watch and marvel at. Just so many. I'll watch something and go, 'Could I ever have done that?'

I've done lots of stuff, but it's rare for people to come up to you and be happy about the fact that it's been put out there, that it's something a bit different, something creative.

I've always taken a lot of joy in my work, but it's also been very results-oriented. It's kind of like, making the thing, and taking a lot of joy in that, as opposed to allowing myself to be transported by the work of my fellow musicians.

Having your work honored nationally is a great morale booster.

Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.

You don't know how much artists go through to make it look so easy. It's all in the practice.

When people say to me, 'You make us proud,' it's heartwarming to hear that.

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.

I am proud that my collections have received such praise, and I am even more proud to share the stage with so many talented designers.

I got told I needed a producer I don't know how many times - maybe 27 times, 30? Then I recently got told 'I'm so proud of you.' That was even more great to hear.

Art is man's expression of his joy in labor.

I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach 10,000 stars how not to dance.

I've got my Grammys on top of my piano and I look at them when I play.

The Oscar nomination is great. It's a great pat on the back. And I like that.

Hubris itself will not let you be an artist.

It's such a human condition, whether you're a great track star or a great knitting person or you paint watercolors - someone knows who you are.

There's a great difference between being popular and being an artist.

1988 I also received from the city of Vienna the cross of honour for art and science. These titles and the various honors mean a great deal to me, most of all for the reason that they would mean a great deal to my parents too.

The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.

Even when you write it, someone's got to play it. So if you can play it and bypass all the rest of the things, you're still doing as great as someone that has spent forty years trying to find out how to do that. I'm really pro-human beings, pro-expression of everything.