Muse Quotes - Page 16

• Today I'm out wandering, turning my skull into a cup for others to drink wine from. In this town somewhere there sits a calm, intelligent man, who doesn't know what he's about to do!

  Rumi

  Wine, Intelligent, Men

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• When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder that such trivial people should muse and thunder in such lovely language.

  D. H. Lawrence

  People, Lovely, Language

  Pansies (1929) "When I Read Shakespeare"

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• It's only those exceptional and rare individuals who have brilliant ideas delivered to them by the muse, complete and gift wrapped. The rest of us have to work at it.

  Alan Moore

  Ideas, Brilliant, Individual

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• January 8 has been a lucky day for me. I have started all my books on that day, and all of them have been well received by the readers. I write eight to ten hours a day until I have a first draft, then I can relax a little. I am very disciplined. I write in silence and solitude. I light a candle to call inspiration and the muses, and I surround myself with pictures of the people I love, dead and alive.

  Isabel Allende

  Book, Inspiration, Writing

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• As one who cons at evening o'er an album all alone,
  And muses on the faces of the friends that he has known,
  So I turn the leaves of Fancy, till in shadowy design
  I find the smiling features of an old sweetheart of mine.

  James Whitcomb Riley

  Life, Design, Albums

  James Whitcomb Riley (1993). “The Complete Poetical Works of James Whitcomb Riley”, p.28, Indiana University Press

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• For poetry, he's past his prime,
  He takes an hour to find a rhyme;
  His fire is out, his wit decayed,
  His fancy sunk, his muse a jade.
  I'd have him throw away his pen,
  But there's no talking to some men.

  Jonathan Swift

  Past, Men, Fire

  Matthew Prior, Jonathan Swift (1853). “Select poems of Prior and Swift [ed. by C. Bathurst].”, p.155

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• My muse must come to me on union time.

  George Balanchine

  Dance, Ballet, Unions

  "Balanchine Said" by Arlene Croce, www.newyorker.com. January 26, 2009.

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• I learned to produce whether I wanted to or not. It would be easy to say oh, I have writer's block, oh, I have to wait for my muse. I don't. Chain that muse to your desk and get the job done.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Jobs, Block, Waiting

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• The virtues, like the Muses, are always seen in groups. A good principle was never found solitary in any breast.

  Gautama Buddha

  Inspiring, Wise, Buddhist

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• Here will I live in the rainy season, here in the autumn and in the summer: thus muses the fool. He realizes not the danger (of death).

  Gautama Buddha

  Death, Summer, Autumn

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• One expected growth, change; without it, the world was less, the well of inspiration dried up, the muses fled.

  Charles de Lint

  Inspiration, Growth, World

  "Memory and Dream". Book by Charles de Lint, 1994.

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• Writing is self-reinforcing. Don't make a fetish out of it, and don't surrender to the myth of the garret, or the myth of the chained muse. It's like playing the guitar, or practicing taekwondo, or having sex. The more you do, the better you get. The better you get, the better it feels. The better it feels, the more you want to do.

  Jay Lake

  Sex, Writing, Guitar

  Interview with Patrick Wolohan, www.sfsignal.com. August 24, 2009.

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• I am impressed by the way Annie Kevans captured the different types of beauties that have been my inspiration and my muses from my grandmother to artists like David Bowie and Boy George.

  Jean Paul Gaultier

  Inspiration, Grandmother, Artist

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• I am imbued with the notion that a Muse is necessarily a dead woman, inaccessible or absent; that a poetic structure - like the canon, which is only a hole surrounded by steel - can be based only on what one does not have; and that ultimately one can write only to fill a void or at the least to situate, in relation to the most lucid part of ourselves, the place where this incommensurable abyss yawns within us.

  Michel Leiris

  Writing, Doe, Steel

  Michel Leiris, Richard Howard (1992). “Manhood: A Journey from Childhood Into the Fierce Order of Virility”, p.105, University of Chicago Press

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• I believe in previous lives and the Muse—and that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled into material being by their own imperative to be born, via the offices of those willing servants of discipline, imagination and inspiration whom we call artists.

  Steven Pressfield

  Believe, Book, Inspiration

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• The feel of a canoe gunnel at the thigh, the splash of flying spray in the face, the rhythm of the snowshoe trail, the beckoning of far-off hills and valleys, the majesty of the tempest, the calm and silent presence of the trees that seem to muse and ponder in their silence; the trust and confidence of small living creatures, the company of simple men; these have been my inspiration and my guide. Without them I am nothing.

  Grey Owl

  Inspiration, Men, Simple

  Grey Owl (2010). “Pilgrims of the Wild”, p.28, Dundurn

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• Inspiration is hogwash. My work comes directly out of my loves and hates. Muses don't whisper in my ear, and ideas don't flow over my body like a cool rain.

  James Victore

  Hate, Rain, Inspiration

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• To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse. They are of two kinds: the library of published material, books, pamphlets, periodicals, and the archive of unpublished papers and documents.

  Barbara Tuchman

  Book, Two, Cooking

  Barbara W. Tuchman (2011). “Practicing History: Selected Essays”, p.76, Random House

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• Within a bony labrinthean cave, Reached by the pulse of the aerial wave, This sibyl, sweet, and Mystic Sense is found, Muse, that presides o'er all the Powers of Sound.

  Abraham Coles

  Sweet, Loss, Pulse

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• Bugs Bunny is my muse.

  Billy Collins

  Creativity, Bunnies, Bugs

  "Everyday moments, caught in time". "TED Talks", www.ted.com. 2012.

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• I truly believe that a beautiful woman is a beautiful woman, but a beautiful woman with a brain is an absolutely lethal combination. Women of integrity, depth, sensuality and strength have always been my source of inspiration, the reason for what I do and how I got to where I am today. They are all my muse. If my quest, in what I do - to make women look and feel beautiful - reflects even a tiny fraction of my deep-rooted respect for them, and succeeds in celebrating these lives of strength and substance, then I will consider it a job well done.

  Prabal Gurung

  Beautiful, Jobs, Integrity

  "On Women, Power and Fashion" by Prabal Gurung, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 5, 2013.

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• Most people assume that a muse is a creature of perfect beauty, poise and grace. Like the creatures from Greek mythology. They're wrong. In fact, there should be a marked absence of perfection in a muse--a gaping hole between what she is and what she might be. The ideal muse is a woman whose rough edges and contradictions drive you to fill in the blanks of her character. She is the irritant to your creativity. A remarkable possibility, waiting to be formed.

  Kathleen Tessaro

  Creativity, Character, Rough Edges

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• For hundreds of years people have talked about artists having inspiration, but often, some persons would say, write us a symphony or write us a song, on commission. The artists would come up with a masterpiece without waiting to have their muse inspire them.

  Tom Glazer

  Song, Moving, Inspiration

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• For deeds to die, however nobly done, And thoughts of men to as themselves decay, But wise words taught in numbers for to run, Recorded by the Muses, live for ay.

  Edmund Spenser

  Wise, Running, Men

  Edmund Spenser, Theodore Bathurst (1715). “The Works of Mr. Edmund Spenser: In Six Volumes : with a Glossary Explaining the Old and Obscure Words”, p.1473

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• I have always believed that opera is a planet where the muses work together, join hands and celebrate all the arts.

  Franco Zeffirelli

  Art, Work, Hands

  International Herald Tribune, March 21, 1990.

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