To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist.
Interpretation
Artists have a responsibility to illuminate and inspire others through their work.
This quote emphasizes the profound role of artists in society, suggesting that their primary duty is to bring understanding, hope, and enlightenment to those who may be lost or struggling. By creating art, which serves as a form of light, they help to illuminate the deeper emotions and truths within the human experience, transforming darkness into a space of possibility and connection.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of creativity, one might say, 'As Robert Schumann said, to send light into the darkness of men's hearts is the duty of the artist.'
It was an unforgettable picture to see Chopin sitting at the piano like a clairvoyant, lost in his dreams; to see how his vision communicated itself through his playing, and how, at the end of each piece, he had the sad habit of running one finger over the length of the plaintive keyboard, as though to tear himself forcibly away from his dream.
I am so fresh in soul and spirit that life gushes and bubbles around me in a thousand springs.
Think it a vile habit to alter works of good composers, to omit parts of them, or to insert new-fashioned ornaments. This is the greatest insult you can offer to Art.
You write to become immortal, or because the piano happens to be open, or you've looked into a pair of beautiful eyes.
Endeavour to play easy pieces well and with elegance; that is better than to play difficult pieces badly.
For me, music is always the language which permits one to converse with the Beyond.
When I sang my American folk melodies in Budapest, Prague, Tiflis, Moscow, Oslo, or the Hebrides or on the Spanish front, the people understood and wept or rejoiced with the spirit of the songs. I found that where forces have been the same, whether people weave, build, pick cotton, or dig in the mine, they understand each other in the common language of work, suffering, and protest.
For me, style is about quality, integrity and timelessness. It is free of trends but always feels fresh and new.
Some of the young photographers today enter photography where I leave off. My "grandchildren" astound me. What I worked for they seem to be born with. So I wonder where Their affirmations of Spirit will lead. My wish for them is that their unfolding proceeds to fullness of Spirit, however astonishing or anguished their lives.
I cannot listen to Beethoven or Mahler or Chopin or Bach when I write because those composers require you stop what you are doing and listen.
A scientist worthy of his name, about all a mathematician, experiences in his work the same impression as an artist; his pleasure is as great and of the same nature.
It's not that I sit down and write great stuff without thinking, not at all. Most of it is terrible. But the stuff that feels fun and fresh to me tends to happen fairly unthinkingly.
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