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Artist Quotes by Eric Maisel

53 Artist quotes by Eric Maisel

All Artist quotes Eric Maisel’s page

Maisel reminds artists that they often understand less than they hoped, and that self‑examination is essential. He describes the intense desire that fuels creativity, but also warns it can lead to depression or greed. He encourages self‑congratulation as a friendly habit and notes that boredom naturally follows excitement.

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Artists are often poignantly careless about making and keeping friends.

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I am a human being and an artist: I really, simply, surely am.

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Humanitarian convictions are the linchpins of our salvation, and these an artist must champion.

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While some part of the artwork may fail, the whole may have its own unique importance.

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An ability to choose is a necessity for the artist.

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Let each of us dream of a community of artists and work to make that dream a reality.

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The artist is a god, but he is also an idiot. That is the human way.

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Art and business may be strange bedfellows, but an artist must make room in her bed for both.

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The artist... may suppose that ideas are his chief currency; but unless he is also attuned to feelings, in life and in…

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Who knows how many artists fail because the light that shines through them is defracted in a thousand directions and not concentrated…

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As the artist matures she is continuously shaken by what she manages to discover: by the earth shifting beneath her feet once…

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Love is the spirit that motivates the artist's journey. The love may sublime, raw, obsessive, passionate, awful. or thrilling, but whatever its…

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The artist who pictures sounds as colours, who feels the difference in microns between one sea green and another... is not attending…

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The artist can't paint, sing, or dance without emotion: if he does, he is a machine masquerading as a person.

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Artists know failure. It is not tragic that they know failure; it is only tragic if they know failure and little else...

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The artist must possess at least as much conviction as does his enemy, the dogmatic, mealy-mouthed, anti-art bigot.

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The artist dreams of works of real breadth; but, limited by his personality and the nature of his medium, limited by inner…

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It goes against an artist's grain to retire. But whether he retires or not, he will age... What work will get done…

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The artist, who must venture into the studio and risk there, and then venture into the marketplace and risk again, is obliged…

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Creativity requires introspection, self-examination, and a willingness to take risks. Because of this, artists are perhaps more susceptible to self-doubt and despair…

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The artist at her best - wild, passionate, rebellious, and human - is often too large and truthful a creature for society's…

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To decide to reach for this blue and not that one, to switch styles or subject matter, to move, in the middle…

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No muse shoots darts of insight into the unsuspecting artist.

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The wise artist makes peace with the fact that he will understand less than he had anticipated.

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Love is the spirit that motivates the artist's journey.

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Artists disbelieve and dispute society's most cherished notions.

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Hurray for criticism, if it means that an artist's voice is heard. Let the wise artist invite criticism and survive it when…

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It is the artist's job to revere beauty without being enchanted by it, to aim for it but also to aim for…

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Ambition is vital, but dangerous: it is a keen motive and a driving force, but over what edge can it drive the…

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The artist's personality, built upon strong desires and compassionate vision, is by its nature prone to depression.

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Because she favours solitude and indwelling, an artist can live a significantly more claustrophobic life that she had ever intended.

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An artist must struggle to accept the shape of this universe - and achieve some important successes...

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The growth that an artist seeks is a fine combination of mastering craft, garnering an audience, maintaining one's mental health, and working…

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An artist feels vulnerable to begin with; and yet the only answer is to recklessly discard more armour.

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The artist's task is to become a successful eccentric, a strange but wise duck able to venture out of solitary confinement and…

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A time comes, after years in the trenches, when the artist begins to fathom what his career has looked like so far…

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An artist... must actively caress wonder: for fascination, like the desire to play, can be eradicated by the rigors of living.

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Keenly aware of their limitations, artists often remain insecure even as their list of successes grows.

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An alive piece of art may be more alive than much of its audience, and with this odd truth artists must make…

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Chaos is everywhere - and artists, to fashion art and live truthfully, have no choice but to invite this unwanted guest right…

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More by Eric Maisel

Affirmations need to be used if they are to become incorporated into the fabric of your being.

The wise artist makes peace with the fact that he will understand less than he had anticipated.

Creativity requires introspection, self-examination, and a willingness to take risks. Because of this, artists are perhaps more susceptible to self-doubt and despair than those…

You can't plan in advance for everything - every mood swing, every mistake you might make in execution, every shift in your circumstances. But…

It is in an artist's real interest to congratulate herself more often: not out of narcissism, but in her role as her own dear…

“What if you can't help but judge life negatively? What if yesterday felt awful, today feels awful, and tomorrow is likely to feel awful…

The artist's personality, built upon strong desires and compassionate vision, is by its nature prone to depression.

“The song you write may be beautiful, the research you conceive may be beautiful, but you are the real beauty in life.”

“How you conceptualize meaning matters. If you hold that it is outside of yourself and must be tracked down, you have one idea of…

Artists have wild desires and a terrible hunger to achieve... Without it they haven't the juice for striving or loving. But desire also can…

If you bring your sexual impulses to your creative work... you'll be working from deep in the genetic code, down where life wants to…

The artist is a god, but he is also an idiot. That is the human way.

It goes against an artist's grain to retire. But whether he retires or not, he will age... What work will get done in the…

Boredom is the thing that regularly arrives between excitements and episodes of meaning: it is as natural as the tides, and in it an…

The middle way cannot be achieved by dividing two extremes in half.