Inspiration

When I was younger and involved a lot with water colours and showing my work at the various shows I met many good artists. One elderly artist who was an excellent water colourist gave me a word of advice I never forgot. He said that there is a point you arrive at when your right brain intuition tells you that you have a piece of art before you. He went on to say that, at this point, "do not fiddle!" By-passing your intuition and fiddling with the end result destroys the piece of art and leaves you with an "illustration." He said, "Don't do it!"—Thomas Mitchell [via John Reid]

An editor becomes kind of your mother. You expect love and encouragement from an editor.--Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

“A book or idea with a strong hook has the relevance of something so personal and meaningful that your audience, tribe, readers, the media can’t resist spreading the word about it. It’s a mini zeitgeist. It has a relevant, catchy twist that pulls people in—and the hook makes it easier to talk about and explain to others as well.”—Janet Goldstein

The human brain is the laziest apparatus in the world. If you start to revise before you’ve reached the end, you’re likely to begin dawdling with the revisions and putting off the difficult task of writing. Unless I find I’ve made some drastic mistake in characterization or basic structure, I never go back until I’ve written the last page.—Pearl S. Buck

Do things excellently. No matter what pathway you choose, don’t settle for mediocre. Make it very simple or wildly elaborate, but bring care to the writing, the production, the structure, and design—all of it.—Janette Goldstein & Suzanne Falter-Barns

For me the criterion of a good novel is that the author has created a total world in which his people move credibly…The novel is just a little cosmos and we’re prepared to accept it, it’s just a real world…I get thousands of letters from people who say how totally immersed they were in the world and how sorry they were to have it end. That works for me.—James Michener

Start to write, and let one thing lead to another. Whatever you do, don’t start to be funny. As for myself, I start my stories with no given destination in my mind. I simply let the stories write themselves. It seems that each paragraph leads to the next.—Ring Lardner

Inspiration

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself.—Alan Alda [via M.J. Ryan, The Power of Patience]

I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end.—Margaret Thatcher [via M.J. Ryan, The Power of Patience]

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself…every day begin the task anew.—St. Francis de Sales [via M.J. Ryan, The Power of Patience]

George Lucas put up his own money to make Star Wars because no one believed in his vision. By the time the movie came out, he was completely broke. But he ended up becoming phenomenally wealthy precisely because he had been unable to sell any of the rights to the film or sequels. --M.J. Ryan, The Power of Patience