Keanu Reeves // "The simple act of paying attention can take you a long way."
Patti Smith // "That's what artists do, that's what poets do...we all do it. We start with something, and sometimes we destroy everything that we've made in order to get to the core place where we started from."
David Byrne // "I sense the world might be more dreamlike, metaphorical, and poetic than we currently believe... I wouldn't be surprised if poetry...in the sense of a world filled with metaphor, rhyme, and recurring patterns, shapes and designs...is how the world works. The world isn't logical, it's a song."
Pablo Picasso // "What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who only has eyes, if he is a painter, or ears if he is a musician...or even, if he is a boxer, just his muscles? Far from it: at the same time he is also a political being, constantly aware of the heartbreaking, passionate, or delightful things that happen in the world, shaping himself completely in their image... No, painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war."
James Baldwin // "The place in which I'll fit will not exist until I make it."
Miles Davis // "Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherfucker who plays it is 80 percent."
Simone Weil // "Pain and suffering are a kind of currency passed from hand to hand until they reach someone who receives them but does not pass them on."
David Lynch // "I long for a kind of quiet where I can just drift and dream."
Daniel Day-Lewis // "I am more greatly moved by people who struggle to express themselves. I prefer...incoherence in the face of great feeling to beautiful, full sentences that convey little emotion."
Rinus Van de Velde // "Let them talk...don't forget that opinions are easy. They are not in your shoes. Be an artist, don't listen, only answer to yourself."
Kurt Vonnegut // "Nobody will stop you from creating. Do it tonight. Do it tomorrow. That is the way to make your soul grow... The kick of creation is the act of creating, not anything that happens afterward. I would tell all of you watching this screen: Before you go to bed, write a four line poem. Make it as good as you can. Don’t show it to anybody. Put it where nobody will find it. And you will discover that you have your reward."
Thich Nhat Hanh // "We often think of peace as the absence of war, that if powerful countries would reduce their weapon arsenals, we could have peace. But if we look deeply into the weapons, we see our own minds...our own prejudices, fears and ignorance. Even if we transport all the bombs to the moon, the roots of war and the roots of bombs are still there, in our hearts and minds, and sooner or later we will make new bombs. To work for peace is to uproot war from ourselves and from the hearts of men and women."