What was any art but a mould in which to imprison for a moment the shining elusive element which is life itself - life hurrying past us and running away, too strong to stop, too sweet to lose.
Willa CatherRead
Whatever is felt upon the page without being specifically named there β that, one might say, is created.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The unexpressed emotions in writing contribute to its creative power.
Willa Cather suggests that the essence of creativity lies not just in explicit descriptions but also in the emotions and feelings that resonate through the text. When a reader can sense what is felt on the page, even if it is not directly stated, the work becomes alive with artistic expression, enabling a deeper connection between the writer and the reader.
Themes
CreativityExpressionArtWritingEmotion
In practice
Example use cases
In a workshop on creative writing, you might say this quote to emphasize the importance of emotional resonance in storytelling.
More from Willa Cather
All quotes βThat is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.
Willa CatherRead
Our tree became the talking tree of the fairy tale; legends and stories nestled like birds in its branches.
Willa CatherRead
Writing ought either to be the manufacture of stories for which there is a market demand - a business as safe and commendable as making soap or breakfast foods - or it should be an art, which is always a search for something for which there is no market demand, something new and untried, where the values are intrinsic and have nothing to do with standardized values.
Willa CatherRead
The air and the earth interpenetrated in the warm gusts of spring; the soil was full of sunlight, and the sunlight full of red dust. The air one breathed was saturated with earthy smells, and the grass under foot had a reflection of the blue sky in it.
Willa CatherRead
This is reality, whether you like it or not--all those frivolities of summer, the light and shadow, the living mask of green that trembled over everything, they were lies, and this is what was underneath. This is the truth.
Willa CatherRead
Similar quotes
In art, one does not aim for simplicity; one achieves it unintentionally as one gets closer to the real meaning of things.
Constantin BrancusiRead
From things that have happened and from things as they exist and from all things that you know and all those you cannot know, you make something through your invention that is not a representation but a whole new thing truer than anything true and alive, and you make it alive, and if you make it well enough, you give it immortality.
Ernest HemingwayRead
But the artist persists because he has the will to create, and this is the magic power which can transform and transfigure and transpose and which will ultimately be transmitted to others.
Anais NinRead
If you believe in Cinderella, and if you can suspend your disbelief at midnight, then you can believe in the interdisciplinary midnight, the 'in-betweens,' and become fortunately entangled, moving from art to science.
Neri OxmanRead
Anybody that creates anything is just creating new compositions of things that have existed before. We're all creating something, we're all creating our own personal works of art in ourselves.
Rick OwensRead
Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.
Rainbow RowellRead