Quote of the Day

I want justice, oceans of it.  I want fairness, rivers of it.  That's what I want.  That's all I want.

-- Elijah Cummings

Quote of the Day

The purpose of being a serious writer is to keep people from despair.  If people read your work and, as a result, choose life, then you are doing your job.

-- Sarah Manguso

Quote of the Day

The last year has forced us all into politics ... We do not breathe well.  There is infamy in the air ... [It] robs the landscape of beauty, and takes the sunshine out of every hour...

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1851

Quote of the Day

There is art left to be made in this world.

-- Anthony Bourdain

Quote of the Day

Whenever life gets overwhelming, go back to chapter one of this book and think about your days.  Try your best to fill them in ways that get you a little closer to where you want to be.  Go easy on yourself and take your time.  Worry less about getting things done.  Worry more about things worth doing.  Worry less about being a great artist.  Worry more about being a good human being who makes art.  Worry less about making a mark.  Worry more about leaving things better than you found them.

-- Austin Kleon, Keep Going, p. 201

Quote of the Day

This is precisely the time when artists go to work.  There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear.  We speak, we write, we do language.  That is how civilizations heal.  I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence.  Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge -- even wisdom.  Like art.

-- Toni Morrison

Quote of the Day

Imitate the trees.  Learn to lose in order to recover, and remember that nothing stays the same for long.

-- May Sarton

Quote of the Day

Live in each season as it passes and resign yourself to the influences of each.

-- Henry David Thoreau

Quote of the Day

You have to pay attention to the rhythms and cycles of your creative output and learn to be patient in the off-seasons.

-- Austin Kleon, Keep Going, p. 187

Quote of the Day

That tree was the great teacher of the last two decades of (Corita Kent's) life.  She learned from that tree.  The beauty it produced in spring was only because of what it went through during the winter, and sometimes the harshest winters yielded the most glorious springs.

-- Mickey Myers

Quote of the Day

Go out and walk.  That is the glory of life.

-- Maira Kalman

Quote of the Day

When we're glued to our screens, the world looks unreal.  Terrible.  Not worth saving or even spending time with.  Everyone on earth seems like a troll or a maniac or worse.  But you get outside and you start walking and you come to your senses.  Yeah, there are a few maniacs and some ugliness, but there are also people smiling, birds chirping, clouds flying overhead...all that stuff.  There's possibility.  Walking is a way to find possibility in your life when there doesn't seem to be any left.

-- Austin Kleon, Keep Going, p. 176 & 178