They say you can't study Kabbalah until you are at least 40 years old. You know why? You have to have experienced at least one generation making the same mistakes as the previous one.
David MametRead
Art is an expression of joy and awe. It is not an attempt to share one's virtues and accomplishments with the audience, but an act of selfless spirit.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art serves as a genuine expression of joy and wonder, rather than a means to showcase personal achievements.
David Mamet emphasizes that true art arises from a place of pure emotion and a selfless intention, motivating artists to create not for recognition or to flaunt their own virtues, but to convey deep feelings of joy and awe. This perspective suggests that the most authentic artistic expressions connect more profoundly with others when they stem from a genuine spirit rather than a desire for validation.
Themes
ArtExpressionJoySelflessnessCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
Utilizing this quote in an art exhibition to emphasize the emotional core of the artwork.
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Every reiteration of the idea that nothing matters debases the human spirit.
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This is the light of the mind, cold and planetary. The trees of the mind are black. The light is blue.
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THE POET A moody child and wildly wise Pursued the game with joyful eyes, Which chose, like meteors, their way, And rived the dark with private ray: They overleapt the horizon's edge, Searched with Apollo's privilege; Through man, and woman, and sea, and star, Saw the dance of nature forward far; Through worlds, and races, and terms, and times, Saw musical order, and pairing rhymes. Olympian bards who sung Divine ideas below, Which always find us young, And always keep us so.
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Time gives growth, it gives continuity and it gives change. And in the case of some sculptures, time gives a patina to them.
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You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair - the sense that you can never completely put on the page what's in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.
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If I were reading a book and happened to strike a wonderful passage I would close the book then and there and go for a walk. I hated the thought of coming to the end of a good book. I would tease it along, delay the inevitable as long as possible, But always, when I hit a great passage, I would stop reading immediately. Out I would go, rain, hail, snow or ice, and chew the cud.
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I want to be an improviser, and I've worked very hard at that. It's an art. You don't just play whatever comes into your head; you have to be very deliberate about what you do.
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