Lorrie Moore Quotes

One of the pleasant things those of us who write or paint do is to have the daily miracle. It does come.

...assume that art begins in unhappiness. True, the goal of art is to convey a vision of coherence and peace, but the effort to develop that vision starts in the more common experience of confusion and pain.

The idea that creative endeavor and mind-altering substances are entwined is one of the great pop-intellectual myths of our time.

When I am halfway there with a painting, it can occasionally be thrilling... But it happens very rarely; usually it's agony... I go to great pains to mask the agony. But the struggle is there. It's the invisible enemy.

Since age seven, I've been composing and have never stopped composing, yet, the creative process is as elusive to me as it has ever been.

Sometimes when you're writing a song and that song comes into your head, it definitely comes from somewhere, like a real experience.

All great art is the work of the whole living creature, body and soul, and chiefly of the soul.

I'd rather get back to making art than talk about it.

I think either you're creative or you're not. In general, I don't think you need to be in pain to actually be creative unless you're writing love songs. Then you might need to have some ups and downs within your emotions to start to capture that.

I love to create, and to me, the ultimate freedom of expression is a blank canvas or a block of clay to capture whatever emotions your imagination gives it.

Artwork is not like a commercial business; there is no such thing as a schedule for art. You can't hurry art.

It's not just about acting. I love film, I'm a director now, I love writing, I love producing, I love having a company that makes films and to be prolific and have a place to put all the ideas that are constantly bubbling up inside of me and that don't let me sleep at night.

Making art, good art, is always a struggle. It can make you happy when you pull it off. There's no better feeling. It's beauteous. But it's always about hard work and inspiration and sweat and good ideas.

I have a desire to create more film, more beauty, more art, more love, but I don't feel desperate. It's not about creating or building a career.

The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working.

Like all artists, I go through creative spurts.

You don't have to suffer to be a poet; adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.

I think a lot of songwriters would agree that it's often easier to find inspiration in misery.

People say if you're doing an art project, that's different from a book, but I honestly don't see it. I try and try, and I just don't.

Art is a kind of illness.

The act of writing surprises me all the time. A miraculous thing happens when you have an idea and you want to convert it into words... and then you start to create a work of art, and that's another miracle, and it remains mysterious to the writer, or to this writer anyway.

Any art worth its name requires you to be fundamentally lost for a very long time.

In my experience a painting is not made with colors and paint at all. I don't know what a painting is; who knows what sets off even the desire to paint?

The seed of an idea laying dormant in an old sketchbook is fed the missing ingredient from a new experience. Trying to share some of these experiences, some of the wonders, is one of the reasons why I do books.

I love meeting people who've read my books. The prime reason to be on the planet is to make things I can show to other people: paintings, books, movies.