God occupies me as a shapeless hunger.
Scherezade Siobhan, The Mirror I Won’t
–Margaret Atwood, from Stone Mattress: Nine Wicked Tales; “Lusus Naturae,”
–Margaret Atwood, excerpt from circe/mud poems
There’s a difference between loneliness and solitude.
Failure is an opportunity.
If you blame someone else,
there is no end to the blame.
True alchemy lies in this formula: ‘Your memory and your senses are but the nourishment of your creative impulse’.
The best work is done with the heart breaking, or overflowing.
Don’t tell people your plans. Show them your results.
To be a photographer, one must photograph. No amount of book learning, no checklist of seminars attended, can substitute for the simple act of making pictures. Experience is the best teacher of all. And for that, there is no guarantee that one will become an artist. Only the journey matters.
The Japanese have a phrase for this dual perception: mono no aware. It means “beauty tinged with sadness,” for there cannot be any real beauty without the indolic whiff of decay. For me, living is the same thing as dying, and loving is the same thing as losing, and this does not make me a madwoman; I believe it can make me better at living, and better at loving, and, just possibly, better at seeing.
Imogen Cunningham – Martha Graham (1931)
No artist is pleased. [There is] no satisfaction
whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a
blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the
others. – Agnes de Mille quoting Martha Graham
A writer or any artist can’t expect to be embraced by the people. I’ve done records where it seemed like no one listened to them. You write poetry books that maybe 50 people read. And you just keep doing your work because you have to, because it’s your calling.
But it’s beautiful to be embraced by the people.
Some people have said to me, “Well, don’t you think that kind of success spoils one as an artist? If you’re a punk rocker, you don’t want to have a hit record…”
And I say to them, “Fuck you!”
One does their work for the people. And the more people you can touch, the more wonderful it is. You don’t do your work and say, “I only want the cool people to read it.” You want everyone to be transported, or hopefully inspired by it.
When I was really young, William Burroughs told me, “Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don’t make compromises. Don’t worry about making a bunch of money or being successful. Be concerned with doing good work. And make the right choices and protect your work. And if you can build a good name, eventually that name will be its own currency.
Acetylene Eyes 