Quotes About Art

We hire for perfect, we manage for perfect, we measure for perfect, and we reward for perfect. So why are we surprised that people spend their precious minutes of self-directed, focused work time trying to achieve perfect? The problem is simple: Art is never defect-free. Things that are remarkable never meet spec, because that would make them standardized, not worth talking about. Rough

How can I create something that critics will criticize?

Emotional labor is the hard work of making art, producing generosity, and exposing creativity. Working without a map involves both vision and the willingness to do something about what you see. Emotional labor is what you get paid to do, and one of the most difficult types of emotional labor is staring into the abyss of choice and picking a path.

This book is about love and art and change and fear. It's about overcoming a multigenerational conspiracy designed to sap your creativity and restlessness. It's about leading and making

You can't really decide to paint a masterpiece. You just have to think hard, work hard, and try to make a painting that you care about. Then, if you're lucky, your work will find an audience for whom it's meaningful.

Real gifts don't demand reciprocation (at least not direct reciprocation), and the best kinds of gifts are gifts of art.

It's not an effort contest, it's an art contest. As customers, we care about ourselves, about how we feel, about whether a product or service or play or interaction changed us for the better. Where it's made or how it's made or how difficult it was to make is sort of irrelevant. That's why emotional labor is so much more valuable than physical labor. Emotional labor changes the recipient, and we care about that. Soft

There's still a safety zone, but it's not in a place that feels comfortable to you. The new safety zone is the place where art and innovation and destruction and rebirth happen. The new safety zone is the never-ending creation of ever-deeper personal connection.

As Susan Kare, designer of the original Mac interface, said, "You can't really decide to paint a masterpiece. You just have to think hard, work hard, and try to make a painting that you care about. Then, if you're lucky, your work will find an audience for whom it's meaningful.

Some artists think they need a boss. Someone who will not only pay them, but also tell them what to do. The moment this happens, the artist is no longer an artist.

Your art is what you do when no one can tell you exactly how to do it. Your art is the act of taking personal responsibility, challenging the status quo, and changing people.

Real gifts don't demand reciprocation (at least not direct reciprocation), and the best kinds of gifts are gifts of art. Alcoholics

In fact, determination is precisely what's needed to write poetry or create art. Determination of the will opens the door for us to trust ourselves enough to actually find the words.

The critic who doesn't like your work is correct. He doesn't like your work. This cannot be argued with.

Some people decide that their art is important enough that they ought to overcome the resistance they face in doing their work. Those people become linchpins.

Shipping an idea went from taking a month by boat to a few days by plane to overnight by Federal Express to a few minutes by fax to a moment by e-mail to instantaneous by Twitter. Now what? Will it arrive yesterday? So, what's left is to make—to give—art. What's left is the generosity and humanity worth paying for. What's left is to take that resistance (the very same resistance we embraced and rewarded for decades) and destroy it.

Whistling as you walk through the woods is a form of art, but you're not doing it hoping a squirrel will applaud.

Picasso hesitates for a moment and asks, "So what do you think reality looks like?" The man grabs his wallet and pulls out a picture of his wife. "Here, like this. It's my wife." Picasso takes the photograph, looks at it, and grins. "Really? She's very small. And flat, too.

The path forward is about curiosity, generosity, and connection. These are the three foundations of art.

Steven Pressfield wrote, "What have you and I been put on this Earth to do? Is it not the creation of the 'inauthentic,' that is the purposefully crafted, in order to deliver to others the gift and simulacrum of authenticity? That's why they call it Art, and why, in some crazy way, it's realer than real and truer than true.

Becoming a linchpin is a stepwise process, a path in which you develop the attributes that make you indispensable. You can train yourself to matter. The first step is the most difficult, the step where you acknowledge that this is a skill, and like all skills, you can (and will) get better at it. Every day, if you focus on the gifts, art, and connections that characterize the linchpin, you'll become a little more indispensable.

The new American Dream, though, the one that markets around the world are embracing as fast as they can, is this: Be remarkable Be generous Create art Make judgment calls Connect people and ideas

Organizing a conspiracy is fuel for your art.

It's like I've always had a painted musical sound track playing background to my life. I can almost hear colors and smell images when music is played.