Quotes About Inspiration

Imaginer les choses vaut mieux que se les rappeler », avait écrit Garp.

When he finished reading this passage, Pastor Merrill lifted his face to us and cried out, "'I believe; help my unbelief!' Owen Meany helped my 'unbelief,'" my father said. "Compared to Owen Meany, I am an amateur—in my faith," Mr. Merrill said. "Owen was not just a hero to the United States Army—he was my hero," my father said.

As for my faith: I've become my father's son—that is, I've become the kind of believer that Pastor Merrill used to be. Doubt one minute, faith the next—sometimes inspired, sometimes in despair. Canon Campbell taught me to ask myself a question when the latter state settles upon me. Whom do I know who's alive whom I love? Good question—one that can bring you back to life.

to burn itself on a funeral pyre and then rise up from its own ashes. Under the drawing, Owen had written: "OFTEN A SYMBOL OF REBORN IDEALISM, OR HOPE—OR AN EMBLEM OF IMMORTALITY." And

If you are lucky enough to find a way of life that you love, you have to find the courage to live it.

She told all the would-be biographers, exactly as he would have, "Read the work. Forget the life.

Robertson Davies

What young writer is attracted to a sunny disposition?

Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor—

She had set her own course in life and done so successfully. Just hearing that such a thing was possible improved his mood.

What impossible matter will he make easy next?

The worse my drawings were, the more beautiful did the originals appear.

I almost always have a notebook with me... a notebook is a nice thing to have in a room, the same way it's nice to have a musical instrument in a stand. .. it makes the household gods happy.

I never feel as fully awake as when I'm in New York.

I never feel as fully awake as when I'm in NY.

If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree it had better not come at all.

The creature has a purpose, and his eyes are bright with it.

You speak of Lord Byron and me; there is this great difference between us. He describes what he sees I describe what I imagine. Mine is the hardest task.

I find I cannot exist without Poetry

Softly the breezes from the forest came, Softly they blew aside the taper's flame; Clear was the song from Philomel's far bower; Grateful the incense from the lime-tree flower; Mysterious, wild, the far-heard trumpet's tone; Lovely the moon in ether, all alone: Sweet too, the converse of these happy mortals, As that of busy spirits when the portals Are closing in the west; or that soft humming We hear around when Hesperus is coming. Sweet be their sleep.

Poetry should... should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost a remembrance.

I will imagine you Venus tonight and pray, pray, pray to your star like a Heathen.

Tall oaks branch charmed by the earnest stars Dream and so dream all night without a stir.

No sooner had I stepp'd into these pleasures Than I began to think of rhymes and measures: The air that floated by me seem'd to say 'Write! thou wilt never have a better day.