It is true that I have had heartache and tragedy in my life. These are things none of us avoids. Suffering is the price of being alive.
Judy CollinsRead
I don't know where my songs come from... If I knew, I'd know too much, more than we are allowed on this plane.
Interpretation
The origin of creativity is often mysterious and beyond our understanding.
Judy Collins reflects on the elusive nature of artistic inspiration, suggesting that the source of her songs is unknown. This highlights the idea that creativity often emerges from a place beyond conscious thought, and acknowledging this mystery can be a part of the artistic experience.
In practice
During a workshop for aspiring musicians, this quote can inspire participants to embrace the unknown in their creative processes.
It is true that I have had heartache and tragedy in my life. These are things none of us avoids. Suffering is the price of being alive.
I have friends who've tried suicide many times and haven't succeeded. I myself made an attempt, so I had a connection with that sort of group of people who have tried suicide at one time in their lives.
Music can speak louder than words, and I will use my music to speak out on behalf of children everywhere.
Most of what we take as being important is not material, whether it's music or feelings or love. They're things we can't really see or touch. They're not material, but they're vitally important to us.
No one is an artist unless he carries his picture in his head before painting it, and is sure of his method and composition.
There are certain sounds that I've found work well in nearly any context. Their function is not so much musical as spatial: they define the edges of the territory of the music.
Making lyrics feel natural, sit on music in such a way that you don't feel the effort of the author, so that they shine and bubble and rise and fall, is very, very hard to do. Whereas you can sit at the piano and just play and feel you're making art.
A work can have in it a pent-up energy, an intense life of its own, independent of the subject it may represent.
The dignity of the artist lies in his duty of keeping awake the sense of wonder in the world.
Perhaps the meaning of all human activity lies in the artistic consciousness, in the pointless and selfless creative act? Perhaps our capacity to create is evidence that we ourselves were created in the image and likeness of God?
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.