Quotes About Inspiration

A single thoughtful, committed person can change the world. We are all having a ripple effect on others; the question is, what kind of ripple effect, negative or positive, do we want to have?

If I could understand everything the way I do now, I could make it all--and then it just stopped. Leaving me with that feeling like when you figure out something brilliant and profound in a dream, but you wake up, and all you remember is that you knew this amazing thing, and now it's just out of reach.

Great art is never finished, only abandoned. — Leonardo da Vinci

Great art is never finished, only abandoned.

When I walk into environments where the walls are clear, or even covered with pleasant artwork — or worst of all, motivational posters — it makes me sad.

My parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles were all funny, and I felt that energy, that delivery, that timing, that sarcasm. All that stuff seeped into my brain.

I think that may be the highest purpose of any work of art, to inspire someone else to save themselves through art. Creating creates creators.

search for "Rich Kelly & Friendship" and "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing." Then watch it. In its entirety. But if you're in a hurry, fast-forward to the 1:35 mark, when the bassist breaks into a happy foot solo.

Music isn't a loaf of bread.

Melody is king. Songs are ruled by melody. I believe that melody, more than lyrics, is what does all the heavy lifting emotionally. When I write lyrics, or when I adapt a poem to a song, my goal is to interfere as little as possible with whatever spell is being cast by the melody. At the same time, I hope, at best, that the words enhance the song somehow, add meaning or clarify and underline what the melody is making me feel.

It seems to me that the only wrong thing I could do with whatever gifts I've been given as a musician or an artist would be to let curiosity die.

I became a songwriter not when I composed that perfect couplet, or experienced the right amount of pain. It's when I realized that whatever I wrote, even if it meant gutting myself in front of strangers, letting all those raw emotions come flooding out, making a fool of myself with my own words, was exactly what I always wanted to do with my life.

No work of art is ever finished; it can only be abandoned in an interesting place.

When I feel like I'm stuck, I try to put myself back in touch with the reality of the situation. There are no rules AND I make them!

However much I disdained the notion of a drug-addled rock star, some part of me still believed that creation myth, that you have to suffer. And then I realized that everyone suffers. Therefore, anyone who creates art can, if they choose, focus on their suffering and say that's where it comes from.

You can't quit because there's a Beyoncé in the world. You can't quit because you went to see the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and realized that everyone on stage knows more about music than you ever will.

I believe that poetry came into existence because people needed it—if it were easy to write down and record things without poetry, we wouldn't have needed poetry. But for some reason we did.

The creative state is the most important part. None of it means anything if you're not excited by the discovery of what you're making.

you will hear something that you want to keep. Or hear something that reminds you of something else. Songwriters are just people who have claimed those things—who give themselves credit. Who say they invented rock and roll. And you can do it, too. You just invented a song. You just invented music.

if you allow yourself the time and willingness to experiment, you will hear something that you want to keep. Or hear something that reminds you of something else. Songwriters are just people who have claimed those things—who give themselves credit. Who say they invented rock and roll. And you can do it, too. You just invented a song. You just invented music.

Stockpiling Words, Language, and Lyrics—doing exercises like freewriting, writing poems, refining, and revising, all of which I'll talk about in the next section Stockpiling Music, Songs, and Parts of Songs—making demo recordings, practicing, learning other people's songs, and writing parts for songs in progress Pairing Words and Music—writing lyrics to a melody and searching for matches between stockpiled demos and lyric sets, poems, and freewriting

inspiration is rarely the first step. When it does come out of the blue, it's glorious. But it's much more in your own hands than the divine-intervention-type beliefs we all tend to have about inspiration. Most of the time, inspiration has to be invited.

Sometimes it can take me a while to relearn my own songs, but I've gotten better over the years at keeping a record of the tunings I'm playing in and/or capo positions. But there are some songs from long ago that I've never been able to figure out. Songs that will never be finished

because I was a lazy idiot and didn't bother to write down the crazy cool tuning I invented. Lesson learned.