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
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.
In practice
In a speech about the power of creativity, this quote can illustrate how art helps artists cope with personal challenges.
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'm not a politician. I don't know how to solve the problems of the world. But as an artist, I have one duty: to ask questions.
Those of us who make up poems have agreed not to say what the pain is.
Cooking is the art of adjustment.
Labels need to work with artists to help them achieve their best work, not to jam records out that are half-baked or three-quarters baked.
My first poem was a bolt from the blue … it broke a spell of disillusion and suicidal despondence. ... it filled me with soul satisfying joy.
I feel like for me to write songs that I would be interested in as a listener, there has to be tension, and there has to be some kind of push and pull between reality and the potential of disaster.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.