What a beautiful testament to the creative spirit and its true motives, to creative contribution coming from a place of purpose rather than a hunger for profit.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the importance of creating art for a meaningful purpose instead of merely for financial gain.
Leonard Cohen emphasizes that true creative contributions stem from a genuine desire to express oneself and connect with others, rather than from a selfish pursuit of profit. This perspective elevates the role of artists, suggesting that their motivations should align with meaningful expression and a commitment to enriching the human experience.
In practice
During a gallery opening, you might share this quote to inspire budding artists to focus on their passion rather than financial success.
What is most original in a man's nature is often that which is most desperate. Thus new systems are forced on the world by men who simply cannot bear the pain of living with what is. Creators care nothing for their systems except that they be unique. If Hitler had been born in Nazi Germany he wouldn't have been content to enjoy the atmosphere.
I always thought that poetry is the verdict that others give to a certain kind of writing. So to call yourself a poet is a kind of dangerous description. It's for others; it's for others to use.
Be With Me In The Phases Of My Work Because My Brain Feels Like It Has Been Whipped And I Yearn To Make A Small Perfect Thing Which Will Live In Your Morning Like Curious Static Through A President's Elegy Or A Nude Hunchback Acquiring A Tan On The Crowded Oily Beach.
I heard of a man who says words so beautifully that if he only speaks their name women give themselves to him. If I am dumb beside your body while silence blossoms like tumors on our lips it is because I hear a man climb stairs and clear his throat outside our door.
I think what we like about music - and what we like about art in general....is that enterprise that stops our minds from spinning. Because we're always all over the place. A good song, a good lyric is a movie: it will just focus and calm and confer significance on this completely bewildering reality that all of us live in.
Most of the time one is discouraged by the work, but now and again by some grace something stands out and invites you to work on it, to elaborate it or animate it in some way. It's a mysterious process.
As a director, I design every movie to be true to itself, and damn it if they like it, and damn it if they don't.
Chess is the art which expresses the science of logic.
Some actors, I think, want to feel that they are as creative as the writer. And the answer is, frankly, they're not.
To be a film-maker, you have to lead. You have to be psychotic in your desire to do something. People always like the easy route. You have to push very hard to get something unusual, something different.
I was captured by music at a really early age. I was really captured by it. Everything about it. It was my mother… It was my father… It was my play thing. It was my toy. It was the best thing in my life.
The language of art is celestial in origin and can only be understood by the chosen.
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