Quotes About Mastery

Chess is difficult, it demands work, serious reflection and zealous research.

The Artist always has the masters in his eyes.

He who understands, as always, can make his car work better than he who does not.

The secret of greatness is simple: do better work than any other man in your field - and keep on doing it.

Ther nis no werkman, whatsoevere he be, That may bothe werke wel and hastily.

The enjoyment of one's tools is an essential ingredient of successful work.

Make a painting you can work on for a long period, and make it look like it doesn't show any effort.

You may wonder which came first: the skill or the hard work. But that's a moot point. The Zen master cleans his own studio. So should you.

You have to get comfortable [with your work], you really have to know what you're doing, and it has to be almost boring to you to be able to do it well.

The foundation of lasting self-confidence and self esteem is excellence, mastery of your work.

A man succeeds in completing a work only when his qualities transcend that work.

Every time you go out on the ice, there are slight flaws. You can always think of something you should have done better. These are the things you must work on.

The goal of an artist is to create the definitive work that cannot be surpassed.

When the bright angel dominates, out comes a great work of art, a Michelangelo David or a Beethoven symphony.

I am not interested in genres. I am interested in doing the best work I can in whatever medium.

Power corrupts, but lack of power corrupts absolutely.

To get the medium's magic to work for one's aims rather than against them is to attain literacy.

I don't want to expose the intricacies of my work so people can understand how I did it.

The product of the head, heart and hand is a thing to be loved.

I believe that with enough practice and good faith, you can learn to recognize when the work is achieved.

I write and rewrite and rewrite and write and like to turn in what I think is finished work.

There's no workman, whatsoever he be, That may both work well and hastily.

Painting is manual labor, no different from any other; it can be done well or poorly.

I refuse to write the same story twice. I keep experimenting. I keep learning how to work. I've been at it pretty much 50 years, and I'm now beginning to learn how to do the job well.