QuoteProject
You don't decide to paint. It's like getting hungry and going to the kitchen to eat. It's a need, not a choice.
Leonora Carrington
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Creating art is an instinctual drive rather than a conscious decision.

In this quote, Leonora Carrington expresses the idea that the act of creating art is akin to fulfilling a basic human need, like hunger. It implies that artists are compelled to create not because they choose to, but because they must, as if it's an intrinsic part of their identity and existence.

Themes

ArtCreationNeedInstinctExpression

In practice

Example use cases

During an art workshop, I might say, 'As Leonora Carrington once said, creating art is a need, not a choice.'

More from Leonora Carrington

You may not believe in magic but something very strange is happening at this very moment. Your head has dissolved into thin air and I can see the rhododendrons through your stomach. It's not that you are dead or anything dramatic like that, it is simply that you are fading away and I can't even remember your name.
Leonora CarringtonRead
I didn't have time to be anybody's muse; I was too busy rebelling against my parents and learning to be an artist.
Leonora CarringtonRead
I didn't have time to be anyone's muse... I was too busy rebelling against my family and learning to be an artist.
Leonora CarringtonRead
We went down into the silent garden. Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves.
Leonora CarringtonRead

Similar quotes

Artists live with God – but give their little finger to Satan. I sleep with the angels and dream of the devil.
Heitor Villa-LobosRead
While writing, I tend to repeat the same song, endlessly, for thousands of times. This helps me ignore any lyrics, and helps create a consistent mood for each book.
Chuck PalahniukRead
Pixar films are not realistic. They are believable for the worlds we are creating.
John LasseterRead
My metaphor for translation has always been that translation is really a performance art. You take the original and try to perform it, really, in a different medium. Part of that is about interpretation and what you think the author's voice really is.
Ken LiuRead
Architecture arouses sentiments in man. The architect's task therefore, is to make those sentiments more precise.
Adolf LoosRead
Poems infatuated with their own smarts and detached from any emotional grounding can leave the reader feeling lonely, empty and ashamed for having expected more. Like icy adolescents, such poetry is more interested in commiserating than acknowledging that feelings β€” the sentiments that make us susceptible to sentimentality β€” actually exist.
Tracy K. SmithRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Leonora Carrington | QuoteProject