I'm irresponsible to my career in order to paint. Because painting is obsessive. I forget to eat. I forget to sleep.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the speaker's deep dedication to painting, prioritizing it over basic needs and responsibilities.
Joni Mitchell emphasizes the consuming nature of her passion for painting, suggesting that her obsession with the art form transcends conventional priorities like career obligations, food, and sleep. This highlights the powerful influence of artistic pursuit on the individual, illustrating how deeply engaged artists can become in their creative processes, often at the cost of neglecting everyday responsibilities.
In practice
This quote could be shared in a creative writing workshop to inspire artists about the depths of their passion.
There's a man who's been out sailing In a decade full of dreams And he takes her to a schooner And he treats her like a queen Bearing beads from California With their amber stones and green He has called her from the harbor He has kissed her with his freedom He has heard her off to starboard In the breaking and the breathing Of the water weeds While she was busy being free
Unlike some of my peers, I haven't really hit a writer's block. When I hit a block I just paint, which is an old crop rotation trick.
This is a nation that has lost the ability to be self-critical, and that makes a lie out of the freedoms.
You wake up one day and suddenly realize that your youth is behind you, even though you're still young at heart.
I have an aversion to being mislabeled. Here's a label I'd accept: I'm an 'individual.' I'm someone who can't follow, and doesn't want to lead.
What I do is unusual: chordal movements that have never been used before, changing keys and modalities mid-song.
The beautiful is a phenomenon which is never apparent of itself, but is reflected in a thousand different works of the creator.
The trap into which all writers have, will, or should fall into, of writing The Great American Watchamacallit, is such an uncluttered and inviting one that from time to time I'm sure even the greatest have to pull themselves up short by the Shift key to remind themselves that it is story first that they should write.
Films that are easy to sell happen to be the worst films. Look at the poster for 'Wrath of the Titans' and 'John Carter': they're exactly the same. You could switch titles.
A great artist is a great man in a great child.
When Iβm photographing I see life.
The subject of drama is The Lie. At the end of the drama THE TRUTH -- which has been overlooked, disregarded, scorned, and denied -- prevails. And that is how we know the Drama is done.
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