When you look back on a lifetime and think of what has been given to the world by your presence, your fugitive presence, inevitably you think of your art, whatever it may be, as the gift you have made to the world in acknowledgment of the gift you have been given, which is the life itself... That work is not an expression of the desire for praise or recognition, or prizes, but the deepest manifestation of your gratitiude for the gift of life.
Interpretation
Art is a way to express gratitude for life and is a gift to the world.
This quote emphasizes the concept that one's artistic contributions are not merely for the sake of seeking recognition or accolades. Instead, it reflects a profound sense of gratitude for the experience of life itself, where the act of creating art becomes a meaningful way to acknowledge and give back to the world.
In practice
This quote can inspire artists at an exhibition, highlighting the importance of their contribution.
Some poems present themselves as cliffs that need to be climbed. Others are so defensive that when you approach their enclosure you half expect to be met by a snarling dog at the gate. Still others want to smother you with their sticky charms.
...few young poets [are] testing their poems against the ear. They're writing for the page, and the page, let me tell you, is a cold bed.
Writer's block is a natural affliction. Writers who have never experienced it have something wrong with them. It means there isn't enough friction-that they aren't making enough of an effort to reconcile the contradictions of life. All you get is sweet monotonous flow. Writer's block is nothing to commit suicide over. It simply indicates some imbalance between your experience and your art, and I think that's constructive.
I want to write poems that are natural, luminous, deep, spare. I dream of an art so transparent that you can look through and see the world.
The heart breaks and breaks and lives by breaking it is necessary to go through dark and deeper dark and not to turn
The universe is a continuous web. Touch it at any point and the whole web quivers.
One can speak poetry just by arranging colors well, just as one can say comforting things in music.
Making music has gotten easier; selling it has gotten harder. Making music has been democratized, but the market is in the hands of fascists.
Film is this incredible medium that allows us to feel empathy for people that are very different than us and worlds completely foreign from our own.
A drawing is simply a line going for a walk.
I am uncompromising to the point of huge dissension in the studio. And it's served me very well. My theory and my philosophy is, 'Compromise breeds mediocrity.' Obviously, you have to pick your battles, and the more success an artist has, the more they want to be involved in their own career, which is not necessarily a good thing.
People wish to be poets more than they wish to write poetry, and that's a mistake. One should wish to celebrate more than one wishes to be celebrated.
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