Ishmael Reed Quotes

If you really want to know yourself, start by writing a book.

Your vivid, exciting companionship in the office must not be your audience, you must find your own quiet center of life, and write from that to the world.

Art is a spiritual practice. We may not, and need not, do it perfectly.

Writing does not exclude the full life; it demands it.

It's important to be yourself. What art does for everyone, helps you understand yourself and in a distilled way, whether it's a painting or a scene in acting or a joke. It distills something about everyday life that can be important to you.

'Faith and Will' is aimed at the same readership as 'The Artist's Way.' The book is for spiritual seekers in all walks of life.

Art is about profundity. It's about connecting to everything that it means to be alive, but you have to act.

I don't like the idea of spirituality done the way it's done. The only way I could understand it was through creativity, not by going to an Ashram, or finding a guru or joining a temple. I made work out of it.

Writing is a really good first step toward that goal of knowing yourself.

Your glass will not do you half so much service as a serious reflection on your own minds.

France was very opposite of the show-business experience I'd been living; I was anonymous and alone. I wore no makeup, wore the same clothes every day. And I wrote and wrote and wrote.

I want to get within myself and write. I really, really want to write.

I happen to be pretty productive when I am in jail. When you are in jail, you have to spend more time with yourself.

To work on great material, what you really end up working on is yourself, your own humanity.

The story of 'Lasers' is my story. I didn't have to look too far to get subject matter for this record; it was stuff that was happening to me.

The dream is to keep surprising yourself, never mind the audience.

I've got my advanced scuba diving license. I'm playing tennis and exercising. I ride my bike everywhere. I've been finding new things. I've been more creative in music and doing different videos. And just meeting different people and being around and present. I'm wonderful when I'm just on nothing.

I'm always writing and reflecting on life. I want to suck it all in.

My identity started developing through the songs I was writing.

One of the reasons I took up acting was to learn to be more human, to get in touch with human emotions.

When I'm out having the experiences, that's exactly what I'm doing: having the experiences. Then I can later reflect and write.

I do a lot of journaling.

I'm always trying to prove to my 17-year-old self that I can do creative things I thought weren't possible.

If you do not go within, you without

The positive thing about writing is that you connect with yourself in the deepest way. You get a chance to know who you are, to know what you think. You begin to have a relationship with your mind.