Ann Beattie Quotes

To some extent, I'm mildly surprised by every new piece, by the precise path that my interest takes.

As someone whose music is connected to his personal growth, I feel an obligation to follow this muse wherever it leads.

Sometimes for a lot of new artists, they don't have a vision, really, or know what they want to say; it's kind of drawn out for them. But me, because I'm such a transcendental thinker, it's always like a journey and an adventure with each project. It's like going through a different doorway each time.

I always say, and I truly believe this, that my work is three steps ahead of me. I have an idea for something and I tend to feel like it's leading me and I'll follow the process through, and it's not until after I've seen it that I truly understand why I'm doing this.

I look at the artistic process as like experiencing the world, channeling it through your personality and sending it back out there. That's the process.

Writing is an incessant process of discovery.

Artwork is not like a commercial business; there is no such thing as a schedule for art. You can't hurry art.

I write based on powerful inner impulses, and those seem to shift over time.

You don't make a movie, the movie makes you.

When I'm in a place like Iceland, I allow myself to take a little more time to divert off onto other paths creatively for a while and see what comes to me.

The artist discards all theories, both his own and those of others. He forgets everything when he is in front of his canvas.

Turns out Picasso's passion for uncertainty, mystery, and the thrill of life never ended.

What an artist learns matters little. What he himself discovers has a real worth for him, and gives him the necessary incitement to work.

Sometimes the writing leads to the revelations, not the other way around.

Creating and producing creative work, to me, those are all happy accidents.

I create work, and I devote myself to the creative process, and I try to, you know, stay pure in that process and be worthy of the messages that I receive.

Most times when I do a film, it starts out with one idea and ends up not being what I thought it was going to be.

I'm a bit of a magpie: whatever I see or hear or read feeds into the songs.

The knack is to find your own inspiration and take it on a journey to create work that is personal and revealing.

I felt the need to get back to painting and I thought the best way was to start drawing, so I enrolled in a life drawing class. I soon discovered that people made very interesting subjects and I am still surprised that I had never discovered it before.

While drawing, I discover what I really want to say.

A way into a creative mind is to really step into their shoes. Do what they love most or try out their art.

You have to - you have to allow something to tell you what it wants to be.

We're all inspired by what has come before us, but hope to use the inspiration to create our own. That's the artist's journey. It's a pretty amazing path.

I don't believe that a writer does something wonderful spontaneously. I believe it's the result of years of living, of study, reading, his very personality and temperament. At one particular moment, all these come together and the artist 'expresses' himself.