Sholem Asch Quotes

This is slavery, not to speak one's thought.

Some slaves are scoured to their work by whips, others by their restlessness and ambition.

You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.

This is just what I have thought when I have seen slaves at work - they seem to go through the motions of labor without putting strength into them. They keep their powers in reserve for their own use at night, perhaps.

Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.

Whatever you love, that will be an influence. It just will. So in effect the young writer's job is: go out and find some stuff to love.

I like the inspiration of the first take.

I have so strong a sense of creation, of tomorrow, that I cannot get drunk, knowing I will be less alive, less well, less creative the next day.

Inspiration, move me brightly, light the song with sense and color, hold away despair

I don't wait to be struck by lightning and I don't need certain slants of light in order to be able to write.

If you do not love what you do, if you are not appropriately grateful for the chance to create something magical each time you sit down at the computer or with a pencil and paper in hand, somewhere along the way your writing will betray you.

There are so many different desires that make you execute an artwork.

Creativity inspires me.

Songwriting requires some sort of ceremony to even get the process started, and it can be somewhat arbitrary.

Agitation gives birth to creation.

I'm 44 now; I feel better than I did when I was 34. I've got more clarity now. I wake up in the morning, and I write my blog, and then I go upstairs, and I work on music. And I do that every day. That's what I do. I don't check in once a week and think, "Oh, I've gotta come up with something now." I'm always writing. I was just in a coffee shop in Chelsea last night, just killing time, waiting for a friend, and I sat and wrote enough for three good songs. I love it. This is my life. It's all I do.

I have a horror of silence while I'm writing. It's like the universe is howling at me if I don't have it.

A man climbs a mountain because it is there. An artist makes a work of art because it is not there.

A great part of art consists in imitation. For the whole conduct of life is based on this: that what we admire in others we want to do ourselves.

Friends open the door for me to write. Then I get paid attention to and it allows me to write other books. The Great Spring and the thirtieth anniversary of Bones just came out and while I'm happy and excited about that, I've already finished a new book. That's what practice does. You don't get caught.

As you work, the mood grows on you. There are certain images which suddenly get hold of me and I really want to do them. But it's true to say that the excitement and possibilities are in the working and obviously can only come in the working.

You are the equal of the idol who has given you your inspiration

Bad films gave me the courage to try making a movie

Do you create anything, or just criticize others work and belittle their motivations?

Sometimes I see movies and I get almost angry - because I'm like, I can never make that movie. It stems from a jealousy, but from a good kind of jealousy. It's inspirational.