Joseph Joubert Quotes

What happiness is there which is not purchased with more or less of pain?

People don't like it when you compare the miracle of childbirth to writing a book, but I think there is some overlap in the two because they are both pure agony.

Writing a book is like torture that you don't know, but after it's done and there it is. It's a joy like unlike anything else, I think it's the closest that a man can come to knowing what is feels like to have a baby.

Happiness: an agreeable sensation arising from contemplating the misery of another.

Man cannot produce a single work without the assistance of the slow, assiduous, corrosive worm of thought.

From such a gentle thing, from such a fountain of all delight, my every pain is born.

It's fun being creative and that's satisfying.

It is very difficult to make the ideas in my head come to life, but what is harder is making them look effortless.

I actually feel that the different kinds of stories come out of different parts of my brain.

How delicious is pleasure after torment!

Happiness is a monstrosity! Punished are those who seek it.

People seem to have trouble with the imagination. They can't believe that you can just pull things out of your brain like that.

Pleasures are always children, pains always have wrinkles.

There's always a part of my brain saying: 'Stop getting comfortable. Don't relax.' Because I find it difficult to write when I'm happy. I have to go out there and get battered up and bruised to write anything. I have to feel something.

A babe at the breast is as much pleasure as the bearing is pain.

You have something that exists in your head, and getting that abstract thought from your head into something that actually exists is a difficult process.

For most people, creativity is a serious business. They forget the telling phrase 'the play of ideas' and think that they need to knuckle down and work more. Often, the reverse is true. They need to play.

What I do enjoy is the creative process.

I'm having fun creating what I'm creating.

I like creation even if the process is always a bit difficult.

Sometimes ideas just come to me. Other times I have to sweat and almost bleed to make ideas come. It's a mysterious process, but I hope I never find out exactly how it works.

The work of creation is never without travail.

Suffering is the pain of constraints. An atom of pure delight, no matter how small, can hold it at bay.

Creating-that is the great salvation from suffering.

I need the pain of loneliness to make my imagination work.