Long live teachers of children, because they can show children how they can save the world.
Pete SeegerRead
I write a song because I want to. I think the moment you start writing it to make money, you're starting to kill yourself artistically.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creating art for passion leads to genuine expression, not profit-driven work.
This quote emphasizes the importance of artistic integrity and the need for artists to create from a place of passion and authenticity. When the motivation shifts from genuine love for the craft to solely financial gain, the true essence and creativity of the artist may suffer, leading to a loss of artistic identity and joy.
Themes
ArtCreativityPassionIntegrityMusic
In practice
Example use cases
A speaker at a music festival might use this quote to inspire new artists.
More from Pete Seeger
All quotes →According to my definition of God, I'm not an atheist. Because I think God is everything. Whenever I open my eyes, I'm looking at God. Whenever I'm listening to something, I'm listening to God.
Pete SeegerRead
Songs are funny things. They can slip across borders. Proliferate in prisons. Penetrate hard shells. I always believed that the right song at the right moment could change history.
Pete SeegerRead
Well, normally I’m against big things. I think the world is going to be saved by millions of small things. Too many things can go wrong when they get big.” — Pete Seeger (on how he felt about attending his big 90th birthday bash last year)
Pete SeegerRead
I’ve never sung anywhere without giving the people listening to me a chance to join in - as a kid, as a lefty, as a man touring the U.S.A. and the world, as an oldster. I guess it’s kind of a religion with me. Participation. That’s what’s going to save the human race.
Pete SeegerRead
Do-so is more important than say-so.
Pete SeegerRead
Similar quotes
In many ways, writing is the act of saying 'I,' of imposing oneself upon other people, of saying, 'Listen to me, see it my way, change your mind.' It's an aggressive, even a hostile act.
Joan DidionRead
Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible.
Charles BaudelaireRead
Technique does not constitute art. Nor is it a vague, fuzzy romantic quality known as ‘beauty,’ remote from the realities of everyday life. It is the depth and intensity of an artist’s experience that are the first importance in art.
Grant WoodRead
I believe that architecture is fundamentally a public space where people can gather and communicate, think about the history, think about the lives of human beings, or the world.
Tadao AndoRead
Memory exercised in a particular way is a natural gift of poetic genius. The poet above all else, is a person who never forgets certain sense impressions which he has experienced and which he can relive again as though with all their original freshness.
Stephen SpenderRead
You prep, you prep, you prep. And on the day that you film, you let all of that go. I try to achieve emptiness as much as possible - the Zen thing - to let the deal come out of that nothing.
Jeff BridgesRead