Quotes About Craftsmanship

I'm a better writer now because I've worked very hard at getting better. My long-range goal will always be to write better books.

The only goal right now that I can have, the only thing I can offer right now, is the need to get good at music, do something with quality.

Who casts to write a living line, must sweat

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece.

Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art.

When love and skill work together, expect a masterpiece." —John Ruskin

People often say that an actor 'plays' a character well, but that's an amateurish notion. Developing a characterization is not merely a matter of putting on makeup and a costume and stuffing Kleenex in your mouth. That's what actors used to do, and then called it a characterization. In acting everything comes out of what you are, or some aspect of who you are.

You see, when weaving a blanket, an Indian woman leaves a flaw in the weaving of that blanket to let the soul out.

To me, a building - if it's beautiful - is the love of one man, he's made it out of his love for space, materials, things like that.

time spent sharpening a pencil is never wasted",

The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.

I was never interested in making cool, distilled, pure objects.

At a certain point, I just put the building and the art impulse together. I decided that building was a legitimate way to make sculpture.

Make a sketch, construct a model, or assemble a prototype. Then another. And another. With each attempt, you'll reveal new possibilities for innovation. Your mind will talk to your hands, and your hands will talk to your mind. This dialogue is called generative thinking, and it happens only when you're making something. It's the active ingredient of design.

Industry without talent is useless. Talent without industry is exasperating. The two together can make an artist.

I've been making sushi for 38 years, and I'm still learning. You have to consider the size and color of the ingredients, how much salt and vinegar to use and how the seasons affect the fattiness of the fish.

The sewing machine joins what the scissors have cut asunder, plus whatever else comes in its path.

It's not the technique, it's the method. It's not the words, it's the melody.

Some paintings were no more than a single perfect brushstroke that conjured a simple yet breathtaking fish or stalk of bamnoo. Clay sculptures in various states of completion lined shelves at the far end of the gallery.

Only art as meditation reminds people so that they will never forget that the most beautiful thing a potter produces is...the potter.

Art does not come from commandments, or follow logic or the consensus opinion of scientific experts, but springs fresh every time from stone and wood and green sprig of earth. It is the stuff that makes good gardeners, hunters, farmers, builders, carpenters, poets, bards, sculptors, painters, drawers, healers, physicians, and herbalists.

The true conjurer finds his guerdon in the consciousness of work done perfectly and for its own sake.

A fitted shoe is a right good shoe," said the old man, enthusiastically. "I'll fit that shoe to the breadth of a hair." "And you'll be all the night about it," declared the son. "Better a late start than a never ending," said the father.

You weren't an accident. You weren't mass produced. You aren't an assembly-line product. You were deliberately planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on the earth by the Master Craftsman.