If there is some good in me, it is because I was born in the subtle atmosphere of your country of Arezzo. Along with the milk of my nurse I received the knack of handling chisel and hammer, with which I make my figures.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the profound influence of one's environment and upbringing on their artistic abilities.
In this quote, Michelangelo expresses gratitude for his origins in Arezzo, attributing his talent for sculpting to the nurturing environment he experienced there. He recognizes that his skills are intertwined with the cultural and social fabric of his homeland, suggesting that creativity is often cultivated through the surroundings and experiences of one's youth.
In practice
In a speech reflecting on cultural identity and artistry, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of heritage.
The art of creation lies in the gift of perceiving the particular and generalizing it, thus creating the particular again. It is therefore a powerful transforming force and a generator of creative solutions in relation to a given problem.
The best artist has that thought alone Which is contained within the marble shell; The sculptor's hand can only break the spell To free the figures slumbering in the stone.
Art lives on constraint and dies of freedom.
If it be true that any beautiful thing raises the pure and just desire of man from earth to God, the eternal fount of all, such I believe my love.
Every beauty which is seen here by persons of perception resembles more than anything else that celestial source from which we all are come.
There is an angel imprisoned in it and I must set it free.
In certain ways writing is a form of prayer.
Art establishes the basic human truths which must serve as the touchstones of our judgement. The artist... faithful to his personal vision of reality, becomes the last champion of the individual mind and sensibility against an intrusive society and an offensive state.
I think acting is a mixture of instinct, imagination and inventiveness. All you can learn as an actor is basic technique.
I don't care if it's a mystery story, a Western, or the story of Julius Caesar. To me it's the emotion, the lies, the double-cross, whether it's Brutus doing it to Caesar or Bob Stack doing it to Robert Ryan that defines what kind of drama it is.
I couldn't possibly write 'Next to Normal,' but God, I can weep and watch 'Next to Normal' five times.
You just go where poetry is, whether it's in your heart or your mind or in books or in places where there's live poetry or recordings.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.