Try any goddam thing you like, no matter how boringly normal or outrageous. If it works, fine. If it doesn't, toss it. Toss it even if you love it.
Stephen KingRead
It starts with this: put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn't in the middle of the room. Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art should stem from life, rather than being prioritized over it.
In this quote, Stephen King emphasizes the relationship between life and art, suggesting that art should be inspired by real-life experiences rather than being treated as the sole purpose of existence. He underscores the importance of grounding artistic endeavors in the reality of life, hinting at the necessity of drawing from personal experiences to create meaningful work.
Themes
ArtLifeInspirationCreativityWriting
In practice
Example use cases
Use this quote in a workshop about the importance of finding inspiration in everyday life.
More from Stephen King
All quotes →Eddie discovered one of his childhood's great truths. Grownups are the real monsters, he thought.
Stephen KingRead
Hairstyles change, and skirt lengths, and slang, but high school administrations? Never.
Stephen KingRead
Description begins in the writer’s imagination, but should finish in the reader’s.
Stephen KingRead
That's the day's business. Thinking. Thinking and isolation, because it doesn't matter if you pass the time of day with someone or not; in the end, you're alone. He seemed to have put in as many miles in his brain as he had with his feet. The thoughts kept coming and there was no way to deny them.
Stephen KingRead
Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don't know if I can 'cuz I'm so afraid of the tommyknocker man.
Stephen KingRead
Similar quotes
If you write fiction, you have to love your characters. It's like your family. You don't have to like them, but you have to love them.
Douglas CouplandRead
At different moments you see with different eyes. You see differently in the morning than you do in the evening. In addition, how you see is also dependent on your emotional state. Because of this, a motif can be seen in many different ways, and this is what makes art interesting.
Edvard MunchRead
Never play a thing the same way twice.
Louis ArmstrongRead
I hope that my painting has the impact of giving someone, as it did me, the feeling of his own totality, of his own separateness, of his own individuality.
Barnett NewmanRead
I love beauty. But I like the beauty accidentally, not dished up, served up on a platter.
Wole SoyinkaRead
Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame. If you draw a giraffe, you must draw him with a long neck. If in your bold creative way you hold yourself free to draw a giraffe with a short neck, you will really find that you are not free to draw a giraffe.
Gilbert K. ChestertonRead