Quotes About Inspiration

Some of us, no matter how hard we try, aren't meant to lead ordinary lives. Fate finds us. Gives us a shove.

If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.

When I go to the Boston Marathon now, I have wet shoulders—women fall into my arms crying. They're weeping for joy because running has changed their lives. They feel they can do anything.

Books took away the pain and disappointment, they always did. Books closed bad doors and opened good ones.

Set your wings upon the sea wind Set your eyes upon the stream Feel the billow of the updraft And believe in your dream Know the mercy of these waters Know the safety of the sky Hear the voices in the distance And believe - they will not lie.

Without hope it is nearly impossible to live. Hope is the air that our spirits breathe.

Legends were not only for the desperate. Legends were for the brave.

I have redeemed myself by giving belief to the wings of the young. Blessed are those who believe, for indeed they shall fly.

Gwynneth had gone to his forge and set

Come alive, dead heart, and sing.

We live by the images of those we decide are heroes and gods.

All my life I've dreamt dreams that, after the initial dreaming, stayed with me and kept telling me how to perceive and consider all that happens to me. Dreams run through my skin and veins, coloring all that lies beneath.

women enrich life.

My best advice for aspiring writers is to read a lot and write. Don't worry if you don't get your first, fifth or tenth novel published, if you keep going you'll make it. Also read how to write books as they may make the process a bit quicker.

The awful, ironic, glorious fix for the writing doldrums is to write the next page.

Even when I'm writing about shape shifters and magical lands, I'm looking into my own heart.

A novel in progress doesn't have a clear, forward process. It's messy, like a beloved, balky child.

I love storytelling when the writing spins through me like photons on their way to lighting the world.

Like my father, I looked up rather more than I looked out.

During the Renaissance there was a renewed interest in the relationship between genius, melancholia, and madness. A stronger distinction was made between sane melancholies of high achievement and individuals whose insanity prevented them from using their ability. The eighteenth century witnessed a sharp change in attitude; balance and rational thought, rather than "inspiration" and emotional extremes, were seen as the primary components of genius.

The simultaneous existence and shared residence of such opposite moods and feelings is well-illustrated by Franz Schubert's assertion that whenever he sat down to write songs of love he wrote songs of pain, and whenever he sat down to write songs of pain he wrote songs of love.

manic-depressive illness, we proposed to the executive director of the Philharmonic a program based on the lives and music of several composers who had suffered from the illness, including Robert Schumann, Hector Berlioz, and Hugo Wolf.

My mind was flying high that day, courtesy of whatever witches' brew of neurotransmitters God had programmed into my genes...

posthumous Piano Sonata in B-flat, D. 960. Its haunting