Quotes About Craftsmanship

Practice transforms a skill into an art

fiction is both artifice and verisimilitude, and that there is nothing difficult in holding together these two possibilities.

I'm better with my hands, and I always loved the slightly romantic idea of starting with bits of wood and being able to create something to sit on, to eat from, to store your clothes in.

Svarte, who was reckoned the best smith at Arnäs, had watched Arn in the smithy and he reluctantly had to admit that there wasn't much he could teach the boy about hammer and anvil. If he were to be quite truthful, the opposite was more likely, which was embarrassing enough and not easy to swallow

Art is free," he said, "and is not to be diminished by any chains of craftsmanship.

Next week I shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend.

The little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush as produces little effect after much labor.

each side of the saddle, all in wickerwork but

From my hand,

The preparation of an illuminated book has always been a very expensive business.

Abram's been working for me," she said, pulling free. She touched Sam's sleeve. "He's been building his own casket.

I keep going over a sentence. I nag it, gnaw it, pat and flatter it.

Continue to wrap these wires around the circle of the bead, applying pressure on the wire. Ensure that each of the new layers is wrapped beneath the previous layer.

Art is the illusion of spontaneity.

I remember my dad working with me on breaking down my script and writing out a back story for my character and all that stuff.

People are curious about how things are made.

On Writing Well by William Zinsser The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White Revising Prose by Richard Lanham

And remember always, "More ought to be scratched out than left.

You are an artist and I happen to be the bit of colour you are using today. It's a part of your cleverness to be able to produce premeditated effects extemporaneously.

There are only four great arts: music, painting, sculpture, and ornamental pastry - architecture being the least banal derivative of the latter.

A]rt can never give the rules that make an art.

The Bootmakers of Toronto, copyright © 2006 by Edward D. Hoch.

the race of men born to the exercise of arms, was sought for in the country rather than in cities; and it was very reasonably presumed, that the hardy occupations of smiths, carpenters, and huntsmen, would supply more vigour and resolution, than the sedentary trades which are employed in the service of luxury.

I remember one woman making paper flowers to sell, with different herbs . . . She made them so fast, and so many . . . that as I watched, her first few zinnias became quickly enough a few hundred, and grew in their happiness to the size of sunflowers. The sunflowers themselves grew to the size of pumpkins, the snapdragons grew ominous, and the rosemary fragrant.