Hermann Hesse

"You must find your dream . . . but no dream lasts forever, each dream is followed by another, and one should not cling to any particular dream."

— Hermann Hesse

German Novelist, Poet, Painter

1877 - 1962

We are given multiple dreams of who we want to be and what we want to accomplish.  Some dreams come true early in life and some don't happen until we are well on the way to the grave.  Some dreams are fleeting and some last a lifetime.  Some dreams require a miracle to accomplish and some come about with the snap of the fingers.  Some dreams haunt our waking hours and others inhabit our sleep.  Some dreams dance with the angels and others hide in the closet of our nightmares.  

What dreams haunt your life?  What dreams demand the most of your heart?  What dreams do you still cling to?  What dreams have you forgotten?

Dean Koontz

"Writing a novel is like making love, but it's also like having a tooth pulled.  Pleasure and pain.  Sometimes it's like making love while having a tooth pulled."

— Dean Koontz

American Novelist

1945 -

I love the images conjured up by this quote.  Pain and pleasure is basically what life is all about.  Why should creative work be any different?  We experience both pain and pleasure while doing creative work — painting, writing, singing or dancing.  Hopefully, you experience more pleasure than pain.  One cannot exist without the other and both teach us something.

Ann Patchett

"Not everyone can be an artist.  There have to be those who witness the art, who love and appreciate what they have been privileged to see."

— Ann Patchett

American Novelist

1963 -

It is a privilege to witness art — to see and experience the creative work of another.  Artists and writers let us inside their hearts and make themselves vulnerable for our sake.  Be thankful that you have been given the opportunity to witness what someone else worked long and hard to create.

Ella Fitzgerald

"Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do.  Where there is love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong."

— Ella Fitzgerald

American Singer

1917 - 1996

Too many people give up too soon on their dreams.  Keep in mind that dreams have no time limits.  Keep dreaming.  Keep striving.  Keep believing.  Once you give up on your dreams there is little reason to keep living.  Remember it is about the journey, not the destination.  Keep writing.  Keep singing.  Keep painting.  It is not about money or sales or celebrity.  It is about the work.  Keep creating.

Here is Ella Fitzgerald singing Black Coffee.

Diane Keaton

"You have to live life all the way.  Take risks.  Do things you can't imagine."

— Diane Keaton

American Actress

1946 - 

The hardest thing for most people to do is to live life to the fullest.  Usually we hold ourselves back for various reasons — most of them perceived, not real.  We are afraid of the unknown.  We are afraid of what might happen.  Fear dominates us.  We are not willing to risk everything.  We choose to play it safe.  Are you playing it safe in your art?  Or are you swinging for the fences?  Are you living the creative life?

Here is Diane Keaton discussing her memoir, Then Again.

Nikki Giovanni

"Writers don't write from experience, though many are hesitant to admit that they don't.  I want to be clear about this.  If you wrote from experience, you'd get maybe one book, maybe three poems.  Writers write from empathy."

— Nikki Giovanni

American Poet

1943 - 

Writers don't experience everything they write about.  They have to be able to walk in the shoes of others, to be able to see through the eyes of others.  If writers could only write about what they have experienced, we would not have fantasy, science fiction or romance novels.  Male writers could not write about the experiences of females; nor could female writers write about the experiences of males.  Writers would not be able to write about people from other cultures.

All creative leaders need empathy.  They need to be able to understand where other people are coming from.  They need to be able to experience the world through the eyes of others.  No one is an island.

Here is an interview with Nikki Giovanni.

Heather Graham

"You need to meet people constantly because that is where you get your ideas and everything that you are going to write.  I find people intriguing.  I love people and I love to hear their stories and to find out where they came from and where they are going."

— Heather Graham

American Novelist

1953 -

Writers are often viewed as loners and they do have to spend a lot of time alone writing, but writers also need human contact.  Many times the people writers come in contact with find their way into novels and stories.  Great writers are observant of the people they meet and use the details of these lives to add authenticity to their work.  

Meet Heather Graham, author of over 150 novels.  She has more than 75 million books in print in 25 languages.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

"Writing, real writing, should leave a small sweet bruise somewhere on the writer. . . . and on the reader."

— Clarissa Pinkola Estes

American Poet, Storyteller

1945 - 

Creative work touches us and leaves its mark on our soul.  We may transform our demons by writing or painting, but we do not escape untouched.  And when we write fiction, our characters become a part of who we are.  We have conversations with these people who haunt our minds.  And they don't leave us.  Our memories do not die.  We are forever engaged in dialogue even when the names and faces change.  We are listening to the voices of others.

Here are some quotes from the book, Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes.

Aaron Copland

"When I speak of the gifted listener, I am thinking of the non-musician primarily, of the listener who intends to retain his amateur status.  It is the thought of just such a listener that excites the composer in me."

— Aaron Copland

American Composer

1900 - 1990

Artists, musicians, actors, speakers, storytellers and writers all want and need a caring audience who is interested in their work.  We want and need an audience who understands and appreciates what we create.  Finding such an audience takes time and patience.  And sometimes it takes several lifetimes.  Be grateful for the audience you have and give thanks to those who take the time to appreciate what you create.

Niels Bohr

"Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution.  It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it."

Niels Bohr

Danish Physicist

1885 - 1962

Growth comes from change.  If we are going to solve our problems we have to be willing to change.  And usually if we change our perspective, we can find within the problem the solution.  If your problems are getting you down, walk away and come back another day with new eyes.

Irving Berlin

"You can't write a song out of thin air.  You have to feel and know what your are writing about."

— Irving Berlin

American Composer

1888 - 1989

Pick up any book on writing and the person will invariably say something about writing about what you know.  And that is probably true about any of the arts.  The best place to start is with something you know something about.  That does not mean you have to know everything.  And we have all had experiences including emotional ones.  It is the emotion that we need to convey in our art.

Harley King

"Sometimes memory is the only gift we give ourselves and the only hope we have of finding our way home."

— Harley King

American Speaker/Writer

1949 -

Here is the poem from which this quote comes:

First Love

by Harley King

A purple sun rises

from the ashes of her soul

and changes the color 

of heaven.  I play chess

with God and listen

to His stories about the old days

when Abraham walked

by His side and David wrote

songs of love.  She died

in a car crash at the age

of sixteen, at a time when

we both were virgins and

Martin Luther King was

assassinated in Memphis.

Even God cheats at chess

and forgets to take a shower.

Hold my hand, she said as

she led me down to the muddy lake

where we gazed at a yellow moon

and traded kisses for a few

precious moments.  Sometimes 

memory is the only gift we

give ourselves and the only hope

we have of finding our way

home.  I listen to God belch

and wish that I could hold

her hand one more time before

the sun rises over my grave.

Arthur C. Clarke

"Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not.  In either case, the idea is quite staggering."

— Arthur C. Clarke

British Novelist

1917 - 2008

Are we alone in the universe?  Or is there life on other planets?  When I contemplate either option, I am in awe.  If we are alone, then it is amazing that we even exist.  And we should celebrate our existence.  If there is life on other planets, then there are great opportunities to explore, discover and learn.  I, for one, lean towards life on other planets.  I would love to have the opportunity to explore the universe and come in contact with other worlds.  And fortunately, science fiction gives me that opportunity.

How about you?  Do you believe there is life on other planets?  Or do you believe we are alone in the universe?  How does your answer to that question influence your creative work?  

Alexander Graham Bell

"A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with — a man is what he makes of himself."

— Alexander Graham Bell

Scotish Scientist/Inventor

1847 - 1922

Most of us come into this world with nothing but the love of our parents and some do not have even that.  There is nothing written on our birth certificates about us being writers, doctors, farmers, artists or lawyers.  All of that comes much later.   Each of us makes himself into what he becomes.  Some do become farmers, lawyers, doctors, poets, preachers, actors, artists and creative leaders.  But who we become is in our hands.  We choose the direction our lives are to take.  Have you become the person you want to be?  

Anita Brookner

"You never know what you will learn till you start writing.  Then you discover truths you never knew existed."

— Anita Brookner

English Novelist

1928 -

Through the creation of works of art, we are privileged to discover the truth about ourselves and the world we inhabit.  What truths have you learned about yourself?  What has the process of creation revealed to you?  Are you paying attention to the process?  Are you demanding more of yourself?  Listen to the wind strumming your hair.  Choose to be alive and full of hope.  Dance with the romance of life.

Steve Martin

"Despite a lack of natural ability, I did have the one element necessary to all early creativity: naivete, that fabulous quality that keeps you from knowing just how unsuited you are for what you are about to do."

— Steve Martin

American Comedian/Actor/Author

1945 -

As creative leaders we must begin each project with beginner's mind.  Being naive allows us to try new things without the history of the past.  I heard a story of a new garment salesman in New York.  Every experienced salesman knew that the buyers did not want to see a salesman during the Christmas holiday so they did not make sales calls.  The new guy didn't know the past so he made sales calls and outsold everyone that month.  Don't let the myths get in your way.  Choose to see the world with the eyes of a child.  Be open to new ways, new habits.

Thomas Edison

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up."

— Thomas Edison

American Inventor

1847 - 1931

Since we don't know the future, we often give up on our goals before we should.  Sometimes the closer we come to achieving our goals, the more discouraged we become.  To us the night appears to be darkest before the dawn.  So the key is not to give up on your dreams.  Hold fast to your dreams.  

Thomas Edison held over a thousand U.S. Patents in his lifetime.  He invented the phonograph, the motion picture camera, a stock ticker, a vote recorder and the light bulb.  In 1914 the phonograph factory of Thomas Edison burnt to the ground.  Over night he lost more than 3 million dollars.  The next day when Edison was walking through this burnt out factory, his son came over to console him.  Thomas Edison turned to his son and said:  "There is great value in disaster.  It burns up all our mistakes.  Thank God we can start anew."  Within three months, he went out and build a new factory, redesigned the phonograph and gave the world a brand new phonograph.

Martin Buber

"Play is the exultation of the possible."

— Martin Buber

Austrian Philosopher/Writer

1878 - 1965

Adults often forget how to play.  We become too serious and think play is beneath us.  The truth is that play relaxes us and helps us be more creative.  So relearn how to play and have fun.  Create your own games.  Fantasize about the world.  Explore the possibilities.  Some of the best play is unplanned and spontaneous.  Be ready to follow the path of the unexpected.  Learn to be silly and goofy.  Be willing to be and look foolish.  

Lucy Maud Montgomery

"Humor is the spiciest condiment in the feast of existence.  Laugh at your mistakes but learn from them, joke over your troubles but gather strength from them, make a jest of your difficulties but overcome them."

— Lucy Maud Montgomery

Canadian Novelist

1874 - 1942

Have you laughed today?  We all make mistakes, face difficulties and have to cope with troubles.  The opportunity is to successfully navigate the white water rapids and find your way safely home to the warm fires of love.  Find the humor in the most difficult situations.  Look for the brighter side.  

Listen to Jane Urquhart, the biographer of L. M. Montgomery, talk about the writer.

Jean Toomer

"We learn the rope of life by untying its knots."

— Jean Toomer

American Writer

1894 - 1967)

Many people wish that what they know at sixty they had known at twenty.  Unfortunately, life does not work that way.  Life is a process of learning and growing.  The mistakes we make at 20 help make the person we become at 60.  And for writers and artists the same is true.  We perfect our art as we grow.  What we write at 15 is not the same as what we write at 30.

What knots have you untied?  What have you learned that has made you a better person?

Here is a poem by Jean Toomer.

Portrait in Geogia

Hair--braided chestnut,
     coiled like a lyncher's rope,
Eyes--fagots,
Lips--old scars, or the first red blisters,
Breath--the last sweet scent of cane,
And her slim body, white as the ash
     of black flesh after flame.