The writer is always tricking the reader into listening to the dream. – Joan Didion
Archive for the ‘Art’ Category
The First Priority
Posted: Tuesday, January 10, 2012 in Art, Commonplace BookTags: Ernest Hemingway
…the writer must be intelligent and disinterested and above all he must survive.
–Hemingway
Two or Three Great and Simple Images
Posted: Sunday, November 27, 2011 in Art, MeaningTags: Albert Camus, Camus
”A man’s work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened.” —Albert Camus
(Your editor, of course, wishes Camus had not insisted the masculine pronoun; otherwise, this quotation was too good not to post.)
Bob Dylan: ‘Truth is just a plain picture’
Posted: Sunday, July 17, 2011 in Art, Commonplace Book, Creativity, Dylan, On WritingTags: Austin Kleon, Bob Dylan, Collage
“Really the truth is just a plain picture. A plain picture of, let’s say, a tramp vomiting in the sewer. You know, and next door to the picture Mr. Rockefeller or Mr. C. W. Jones on the subway going to work. You know, any kind of picture. Just make a collage of pictures.” — Bob Dylan
See more excellent quotes on collage, theft, and originality on Austin Kleon‘s excellent page o’ quotes.
Accept It: Stanley Booth on the Deep Life of the Blues
Posted: Thursday, June 9, 2011 in Art, Blues, Commonplace Book, LifeTags: Blues, Stanley Booth
“By now there must be in the world a million guitar virtuosos; but there are very few real blues players. The reason for this is that the blues–not the form but the blues–demands such dedication. This dedication lies beyond technique; it makes being a blues player something like being a priest. Virtuosity in playing blues licks is like virtuosity in celebrating the Mass, it is empty, it means nothing. Skill–competence–is a necessity, but a true blues player’s virtue lies in his acceptance of his life, a life for which he is only partly responsible.”
(For more, go here.)
