Brett Gelman Quotes

You need a strong sense of 'otherness' to be able to create in your life.

I was raised not to be afraid to show emotion or imagination.

Unless artists can remember what it was to be a little boy, they are only half complete as artist and as man.

Writing makes you more human.

Photographers tend to have the non-judgmental gene

The artistic side of a person is never narcissist; it's always empathic. It's always kind and compassionate.

I feel like I'm a much better person when I'm developing my imagination and my innocence and my vulnerability. I like that version of me better than the version where I'm just working on my analytical mind.

I feel like songwriting is an experiment in empathy.

But I'm the only one who can paint the moon, because I'm the only one who knows whether that's right or not.

Students read for tests and because their parents ask them to, but I think it's very important to tell children that you can read for fun, too, and to understand human spirit. It builds empathy.

A truly creative person rids him or herself of all self-imposed limitations.

Poets have to be sensitive to their audience, but it does not mean that they censor themselves. I realise my audience is diverse. Some will read with empathy and curiosity while others will take offense.

She has no imagination and that means no compassion.

Writing songs helped me figure out how to communicate with other people. I finally figured out that if I could express something in a song, I could probably express it in my real life, too.

The artist forges himself to the others, midway between the beauty he cannot do without and the community he cannot tear himself away from. That is why true artists scorn nothing: they are obliged to understand rather than to judge.

When you start to develop your powers of empathy and imagination, the whole world opens up to you.

Literature allows us to be open, to listen, and to be curious.

No one can be an artist without a rich inner life.

I am a writer. I suppose I think that the highest gift that man has is art, and I am audacious enough to think of myself as an artist - that there is both joy and beauty and illumination and communion between people to be achieved through the dissection of personality.

I don't think you can create art out of anger; it has to come out of some form of understanding. You have to feel good about who you are and that you could do something to change things.

Honestly, without art and dance, I think I would be a very safe, black-and-white thinker. I wouldn't dare to take any risks or see so much of the world in myself and other people!

Whether it's a song or a television show, or a book or poem, art is the thing that cracks me open and encourages me to go on a deeper journey to find my own compassion and empathy and humanity.

I think one of my best qualities is my ability to empathize with people. Perhaps it's because my journey has been so bumpy.

How can you build something for someone else if you don't have enough familiarity with them to imagine the world through their eyes?

A love of reading shows empathy, the desire to understand how others live or act or might act - and why.