You don't stop laughing because you grow older. You grow older because you stop laughing.
Maurice ChevalierRead
Inspiration comes unawares, from unaccountable sources that have nothing to do with planning or intelligence. Let it cool ever so slightly, and you are left, pen or brush in hand, with no inspiration at all. Gifted people need not, therefore, make a song and dance about being or supposing themselves superior. They simply happened to be born with that fortunate, subconscious equipment of theirs, and the mystery exists independently of intelligence or ambition.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Inspiration is often spontaneous and unrelated to conscious effort, and true talent is a gift rather than a measure of superiority.
This quote highlights the elusive nature of inspiration and creativity, suggesting that it often strikes unexpectedly and is not the result of deliberate planning or intelligence. Maurice Chevalier emphasizes that those who are considered gifted in the arts possess an intrinsic ability that is independent of their awareness or ambition, pointing to the mystery of creative inspiration as something that cannot be controlled or forced.
Themes
InspirationCreativityArtTalentGiftedness
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about creativity in the arts, one might quote this to emphasize the unpredictable nature of artistic inspiration.
More from Maurice Chevalier
All quotes →Many a man has fallen in love with a girl in a light so dim he would not have chosen a suit by it.
Maurice ChevalierRead
Similar quotes
I believe that Judy Garland's artistry was so fine. I mean, when people say: 'oh, she brought so much of her life to her music', I don't really believe that. I believe that she didn't have to. She just was a moving human being. That was her gift.
Bette MidlerRead
The writer must believe that what he is doing is the most important thing in the world. And he must hold to this illusion even when he knows it is not true.
John SteinbeckRead
Poetry is not easy. Or should I say, real poetry is not easy.
Robert PinskyRead
When I'm in certain moods, a conversation will start up in my head, and suddenly I'll realize that the language has reached a very high and interesting level, and then lines and stanzas will just kind of appear, full-blown.
Franz WrightRead
I'd been painting rats for three years before someone said 'that's clever it's an anagram of art' and I had to pretend I'd known that all along.
BanksyRead
I loved working when I worked at commercial art and they told you what to do and how to do it and all you had to do was correct it and they'd say yes or no. The hard thing is when you have to dream up the tasteless things to do on your own.
Andy WarholRead