Lewis H. Lapham Quotes

I am a blank slate - therefore I can create anything I want.

I think we're all born with this huge canvas in front of us and the paintbrushes and the paint, and we choose what to put on this canvas.

Your life is a blank page. You write on it.

Everyday begins like a blank chalkboard, on which each one of us can write the poem of our present and our dreams for the future.

Play and write music the way you want the world to be.

I definitely prefer to write under my own volition and see what happens.

I have to follow my own vision.

I can't be interesting, controversial, and the writer I'd like to be if I need everybody to like me and think I'm doing the right thing, because those two things, in my experience, never go hand in hand.

One thing we've always wanted to do is just do things our way, and we've always talked about having our own festival.

The people I'm inspired by and I listen to are all ballsy, and I feel like I'm closer to an artist when they're open and honest.

I needed to be more self-determining, and the most self-determining thing you can do in comedy is stand-up.

I am fortunate that people have given me the opportunity and confidence to go all out and have fun with the characters I play, and try something new each time.

At some point, I would like to start creating my own things. If people don't write the scripts I like, then I will do my own.

People like me thought America was the best place to be creative, to be free to create, to have the freedom to be who you are.

A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.

A painter's got a canvas. The writer's got reams of empty paper. A musician has silence.

Every stimulus becomes an opportunity to find fresh ways to express your personal vision.

An artist is an explorer. He has to begin by self-discovery and by observation of his own procedure. After that he must not feel under any constraint.

You're the artist - you make the music that you want to make.

I think if human beings had genuine courage, they'd wear their costumes every day of the year, not just on Halloween. Wouldn't life be more interesting that way? And now that I think about it, why the heck don't they? Who made the rule that everybody has to dress like sheep 364 days of the year? Think of all the people you'd meet if they were in costume every day. People would be so much easier to talk to - like talking to dogs.

Being liberated means reading what you want to read, and fantasizing about what you want to fantasize about.

A canvas is never empty.

When you start putting pen to paper, you see a side of your personal truth that doesn't otherwise reveal itself in conversation or thought.

The future has many names: For the weak, it means the unattainable. For the fearful, it means the unknown. For the courageous, it means opportunity.

You're free to do anything you want with your company. It's more like art. You don't have to follow any norms. It's an expression of how you feel the world should be. When you make a company, that's your little place to make your own little utopia.