“The channel of art can only become clogged and misdirected by the artist's concern with merely temporary and local disturbances. The song is higher than the struggle.” ArtArtistSongStruggleHigherConcernDifficultyLocalsTemporaryDisturbance Book:Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979-1985 Source: Blood, Bread, and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979-1985
“When one has praised Turgenev, however, for the beauty of his character and the beautiful truth of his art, one remembers that he, too, was human and therefore less than perfect. His chief failing was, perhaps, that of all the great artists, he was the most lacking in exuberance. That is why he began to be scorned in a world which rated exuberance higher than beauty or love or pity.” WorldHumansArtCharacterBeautifulRememberArtistPerfectFailingHigherPityChiefsLackingGreat ArtGreat ArtistExuberanceScorned Author:Robert Wilson Lynd
“Art is a severe business; most serious when employed in grand and sacred objects. The artist stands higher than art, higher than the object. He uses art for his purposes, and deals with the object after his own fashion.” ArtUsePurposeArtistDealsFashionObjectsSeriousHigherArt IsSacredSevereEmployed Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“Resistance in my experience always kicks in when you're trying to move from a lower level to a higher level or to identify with a braver part of yourself or your higher nature. So it's that negative repelling force. It's kind of the dragon that we have to slay every day if we're artists or entrepreneurs.” IfsTryingKindMovingArtistForceLevelsHigherNegativeEntrepreneurResistanceKicksDragonsHigher LevelRepelling Author:Steven Pressfield