Quotes About Inspiration

There I was at fifteen, on the hook, confronted by Matisse and Chagall, by Nolde, Kirchner, and Schmidt-Rotluff, by Guernica and the frantic wall-sized Jackson Pollock, by the Beckmann triptych and Louise Nevelson's dark black sculpture.

What people who don't write don't understand is that they think you make up the line consciously — but you don't. It proceeds from your unconscious. So it's the same surprise to you when it emerges as it is to the audience when the comic says it. I don't think of the joke and then say it. I say it and then realize what I've said. And I laugh at it, because I'm hearing it for the first time myself.

I am one who shares Saul Bellow's estimate of Hemingway rather than John Updike's. I could pick up any book of his and turn to any page and read and the poetry of his prose kills me.

To say that I was blown away by Mort Sahl—it would be like when I first tasted spare ribs.

soprano saxophone for their delectation (years later

It was either that or a sportswriter where I could document the poetry of athletics much the same as my idol, Jimmy Cannon.

Writing with someone mitigates the intense loneliness.

zdolnoÅ›ci twórcze i moc mojej wyobra?ni dalece przewy?szajÄ… mo?liwoÅ›ci zwykÅ'ego entuzjasty LSD.

but to pun on no less a maven than Blaise Pascal, "The art has its reasons, which reason knows nothing of.

There were record albums: classical, jazz, popular, the Caedmon Poets.

You can tell from my movies; while some are entertaining, no idea I ever had is going to start any new religion.

She bought him a leather-bound edition of Miss Julie and inscribed it "To Jerry, You only live once. If you're a schlemiel, twice won't help. Love, Lulu.

by the Beckmann triptych and Louise Nevelson's dark black sculpture.

I wrote one single joke for Don Adams. Jonathan Winters needed nothing from anyone; he was simply a genius.

Don't look back, Satchel Paige said, something may be gaining on you.

If Woody Allen can lose those Mort Sahl mannerisms, he could be a very funny comedian." I wanted to do what he did, I wanted to be like him, I wanted to be him. And that's the problem. You have to be him to get that effect. It wasn't the brilliant jokes, which

The movie came together easily with the exception of the music. I began by using Stravinsky, but the atonality rendered everything unfunny. The minute we switched to Prokofiev, the film came alive.

If you want to learn something, just steal it.

Then I got a little braver and made up songs telling what I thought was wrong and how to make it right, songs that said what everybody in the country was thinking. And this has held me ever since.

The person with a joyous heart is a treasure to be with, a wellspring of inspiration, and a fit companion. When we are joyous of heart, we hear a resonance in the songs of the birds, see resonance in the opening of a flower, and feel it in the pressure of a friend's hand.

Siempre creyó que un novelista debe estar a la altura de sus historias, y desde siempre le aquejó el temor de nunca ser lo suficientemente bravo

The suffering of the leader is always lightened by his glory. As much as possible, you must let others share in your glory, so that they never lose heart." I

In heaven's name, let us not wait for other people to come to us and call upon us to do great deeds. Let us instead be the first to summon the rest to a path of honor.

Sirs, call to mind what by help of the gods you have already done. Bethink you of the battles you have won at close quarters with the foe; of the fate which awaits those who flee before their foes. Forget not that we stand at the very doors of Hellas. Follow in the steps of Heracles, our guide, and cheer each the other onwards by name. Sweet were it surely by some brave and noble word or deed, spoken or done this day, to leave the memory of oneself in the hearts of those one loves.