It seems to me madness to wake up in the morning and do something other than paint, considering that one may not wake up the following morning.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of pursuing one's passion and creativity each day as life is uncertain.
In this quote, Frank Auerbach expresses the idea that life is fleeting and unpredictable, which makes it essential to engage in one's true passion—painting, in his case—every day. He suggests that choosing not to embrace one's creative calling feels irrational in the face of life's uncertainties, urging individuals to prioritize their passions amid the unpredictability of existence.
In practice
In a motivational speech about following your dreams, you could use this quote to highlight the importance of pursuing one's passion.
To put down an ideogram of a table so that people will recognize it as a table is not the work of a painter, but to sense it for a moment as a magic carpet with a leg hanging down at each corner is the beginning of a painter's imagination.
Most of the time one is discouraged by the work, but now and again by some grace something stands out and invites you to work on it, to elaborate it or animate it in some way. It's a mysterious process.
But, after all, the aim of art is to create space - space that is not compromised by decoration or illustration, space within which the subjects of painting can live.
I never plot out my novels in terms of the tone of the book. Hopefully, once a story is begun it reveals itself
It's tricky when you're doing a recording, because the only weapon you have is your voice and the delivery of that voice. You don't have a gesture or a facial expression, there are no costumes or set pieces. Everything needs to be present in the voice.
When we are writing, or painting, or composing, we are, during the time of creativity, freed from normal restrictions, and are opened to a wider world, where colors are brighter, sounds clearer, and people more wondrously complex than we normally realize.
I would pass this music store on the way to school, and there was a clarinet in the window, a second-hand one. And I kept asking my parents to buy it, and eventually they did. I still have it now.
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