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Quote by Stephen Nachmanovitch

“If I "try" to play, I fail; if I force the play, I crush it; if I race, I trip. Any time I stiffen or brace myself against some error or problem, the very act of bracing would cause the problem to occur. The only road to strength is vulnerability.”

Quote by Stephen Nachmanovitch

Book:Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

Work

Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

This book delves into the practice and philosophy of improvisation, illustrating how it can be applied in both personal and artistic contexts. It examines the principles behind improvisation and its impact on creativity, innovation, and the human experience. more

Author

Stephen Nachmanovitch

Stephen Nachmanovitch is an American author best known for his book 'Free Play: The Power of Improvisation in Life and Work'. His work explores the application of improvisation in art and life, and how it can promote personal growth and creativity. more

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“If we split practice from the real thing, neither one of them will be very real.”

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Book:Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

Source: Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

“Brahms once remarked that the mark of an artist is how much he throws away. Nature, the great creator, is always throwing things away. A frog lays several million eggs at a sitting. Only a few dozen of these become tadpoles, and only a few of those become frogs. We can let imagination and practice be as profligate as nature.”

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Book:Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

Source: Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

“New organs of perception come into being as a result of necessity. Therefore, O man, increase your necessity, so that you may increase your perception.”

Men May Results Perception Increase Organs

Author:Rumi

“Artwork is not thought up in consciousness and then, as a separate phase, executed by the hand. The hand surprises us creates and solves problems on its own. Often, enigmas that baffle our brains are dealt with easily, unconsciously, by the hand.”

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Book:Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

Source: Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

“Creative living, or the life of a creator, seems like a leap into the unknown only because "normal life" is rigid and traumatized.”

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Book:Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

Source: Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

“Practice is an ever-fresh, challenging flow of work and play in which we continually test and demolish our own delusions; therefore, it is sometimes painful.”

Sometimes Play Challenges Practice Flow Tests Painful Delusion Demolish Work And Play

Author:Stephen Nachmanovitch

“I no longer sought skill, flexibility, strength, endurance, muscle tone, and quick responsiveness as means of imposing my will on the instrument, but rather of keeping an open and unrestricted pathway for the creative impulse to play its music straight from the preconscious depths beneath and beyond me.”

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Author:Stephen Nachmanovitch

“All roads are long which lead to one's heart's desire.”

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Author:Joseph Conrad

“If we operate with a belief in long sweeps of time, we build cathedrals; if we operate from fiscal quarter to fiscal quarter, we build ugly shopping malls.”

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Author:Stephen Nachmanovitch

“Writing, playing, composing, painting, reading, listening, looking-all require that we submit to being swept away by Eros, to a transformation of self of the kind that happens when we fall in love.”

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Book:Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art

Source: Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art