Quotes About Craftsmanship

If you're going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy.

But if what interests you are stories of the fantastic, I must warn you that this kind of story demands more art and judgment than is ordinarily imagined.

Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket

An example of a really responsible system is the system the Romans used when they built an arch. The guy who created the arch stood under it as the scaffolding was removed. It's like packing your own parachute.

That's the point of working with one's hands, you see. It gives the mind something else to do besides worry.

And there was you - your fair self, always delicately dressed, with white firm fingers sure of touch in delicate true work. I loved you then.

When I see them knit,' Terry said, 'I can almost call them feminine.' 'That doesn't prove anything,' Jeff promptly replied. 'Scotch shepherds knit --always knitting.

In China our professional artists or craftsman used to carve large pieces of white ivory into models of famous buildings, such as the Peking Palace or the Temple of Heaven, with streets and people to the minutest detail. I have been fortunate enough to see a few of theses, and the snow-covered Oxford High, with its yellow stone, resembled one of these exquisite ivory carvings, yellowed with age. I was happy to have discovered such affinity between Oxford and Ancient China.

...if a man love the labor of any trade, apart from any question of success or fame, the gods have called him...

Good tattoos aren't cheap and cheap tattoos aren't good.

You think it, I ink it.

Most writers have a cherished beat-up typewriter and a favorite well-maintained pen.

Be a vintage typewriter in a world full of laptops.

Author: a dancer of typewriter keys.

The best writers always make poetry, whether it comes out prose or verse.

Calligraphy, a spiritual art that has been forgotten in favor of an emotionless keyboard.

Poets don't draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.

Gardening is the slowest of the performing arts.

The best carpenters make the fewest chips.

A bad day woodworking is better than a good day working.

The wordsmith cuts saws for a living.

Just as writing can become calligraphy when it's creatively, skillfully, and consciously performed, so can all other activities become art. In this case, we are reflecting upon life itself as an artistic statement—the art of living.

Man who is without the arts is little above the beasts of the field.

Just keep learning from the role and not just go for the money.