Most people, if they were generous, were so because they thought life was short and that one must make the most of it. Sid Baxter was generous because he knew that life was long. It went on and on even when you had no use for it anymore. It was happiness, not life, that was short, and when it visited - in the form of a fine evening spent talking with a friend - he honoured it.
I play until my fingers are blue and stiff from the cold, and then I keep on playing. Until I'm lost in the music. Until I am the music--notes and chords, the melody and harmony. It hurts, but it's okay because when I'm the music, I'm not me. Not sad. Not afraid. Not desperate. Not guilty.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the deep connection between the artist and their art, illustrating how immersion in creativity can provide escape from pain and negative emotions.
Jennifer Donnelly expresses the transformative power of music and art through her quote. She conveys that while physical discomfort may accompany the act of creation, the process of becoming one with her music offers a reprieve from personal struggles such as sadness, fear, and guilt. This highlights how engaging with one's passion can lead to an exhilarating experience that transcends everyday hardships.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the power of creativity, this quote can illustrate how art helps artists cope with personal challenges.
More from Jennifer Donnelly
All quotes →Similar quotes
I want to know one thing, what is color?
Our easiest approach to a definition of any aspect of fiction is always by considering the sort of demand it makes on the reader. Curiosity for the story, human feelings and a sense of value for the characters, intelligence and memory for the plot. What does fantasy ask of us? It asks us to pay something extra.
I discovered early in my movie work that a movie is never any better than the stupidest man connected with it. There are times when this distinction may be given to the writer or director. Most often it belongs to the producer.
I did not go into the film business to be symbolized as someone else's vision of me.
Poetry is above all a concentration of the power of language, which is the power of our ultimate relationship to everything in the universe.
All architecture has a public nature, I believe, so I would like to make a public space.