Quotes About Inspiration

Back in the 1960s, I saw Peter, Paul and Mary. I was at that age, about 14, and I was mesmerized.

First thing, I throw on some jeans, a T-shirt and my Keds sneakers and make coffee. That is actually my favorite time of day. That is when I do my songwriting, when I am in writing mode.

Just because I'm talking about something that might have been a sad or painful situation doesn't mean that I'm sad or tortured 24 hours a day any more than anybody else is.

My approach to recording and all that is pretty organic. It just has to do with all the songs I wrote; go in and record them.

Some of their best songs don't have bridges and choruses. So that made me think I should trust my instincts. My songs were okay, I figured. I didn't need to change anything.

Sometimes I might borrow something from a song I started a long time ago and see if I can grab something.

The way I look at life, whatever I'm doing at that time in my life is going to be reflected in my songs, for the most part.

There's so many other things to write about than unrequited love.

Each year new consuls and proconsuls are made; but not every year is a king or a poet born.

The best ideas are common property.

All art is but imitation of nature.

The soul has this proof of its divinity that divine things delight in it.

The lively power of his mind prevailed, and forth he marched far beyond the flaming walls of the heavens, as he traversed the immeasurable universe in thought and imagination.

On a dark theme I trace verses full of light, touching all the muses' charm.

O goddess, bestow on my words an immortal charm.

When they were all ready, Halpern again counted them in, and the lyrical clarinet line floated over the strings and, Max felt, out of the open window and on, out and out over the hot, dusty July city like summer rain.

Every writer is the amanuensis to their characters

My favourite setting is Italy, specifically Venice, because it is there that I met my husband, who is Venetian. I used it as the setting for Virtue and Vice, Enchantment in Venice, and Seduced by Innocence. Apart from Venice, my favourite city is Rome.

Every time words are spoken, something is created. Be conscious of what you say and how you say it. Use words that build up, appreciate, encourage and inspire. Lucy MacDonald

We must have ideals and try to live up to them, even if we never quite succeed. Life would be a sorry business without them. With them it's grand and great.

[O]ne can dream so much better in a room where there are pretty things.

You may tire of reality but you never tire of dreams.

It is the moving inspiration of our age, the only question worth struggling for: the question of how to lift humanity from poverty and despair.

We need to dig deep and give people a reason to be optimistic just as Obama is doing in America. Because in the same way that outcome of the U.S. elections will change the course of events there and around the world, so too do politics here in Britain.