Thomas Mars Quotes

The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work.

A lot of artists need structure.

An author who waits for the right 'mood' will soon find that 'moods' get fewer and fewer until they cease altogether.

I would never finish a painting if I didn't have a deadline.

The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working.

I have no writing habit. I work when I feel like it, and I work when I have to - mostly the latter.

Yes, and I can sit down on a white piece of paper and work because I don't believe too much into inspiration, only I'm waiting for inspiration, work and then inspiration may come. It's a little too easy to say that.

I can't sit and twiddle my thumbs. I have to start writing even if it's miserable some days.

Beethoven, Wagner, Bach, and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand. They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration.

Early in my songwriting career, when I was learning a lot about writing songs, I'd force myself to sit down until I came up with something.

Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.

The best thing for my creative process is a deadline.

Luckily, my creative juices are pretty much on tap. If I'm compelled to do something, I can go for it and get it done.

I just write when the bell rings. I don't have time to wait for inspiration.

Usually composers need a reason to write. I need a deadline.

I don't wait for inspiration. I'm not, in fact, quite sure what inspiration is, but I'm sure that if it is going to turn up, my having started work is the precondition of its arrival.

Katagiri Roshi says: "Poor artists. They suffer very much. They finish a masterpiece and they are not satisfied. They want to go on and do another." Yes, but it's better to go on and do another if you have the urge than to start drinking and become alcoholic or eat a pound of good fudge and get fat.

If you wait for inspiration, you're not a writer, but a waiter.

Those who are waiting for an epiphany to strike may wait forever. The artist simply goes to work, making art, both good and not so good.

Don't wait for inspiration. It comes while one is working.

The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day to his figures. They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration.

What I say to an artist is, 'When you can't paint - paint.

The how-to is all about day in, day out finding a way to feed the monster, the drive that lives inside.

I don't worry about inspiration, or anything like that. It's a matter of just sitting down and working.

The sooner you learn to finish things, and as a matter of course finish your creative endeavors, the better. It took me a long time to learn that.