Muse Quotes - Page 16

• As one who cons at evening o'er an album all alone,
  And muses on the faces of the friends that he has known,
  So I turn the leaves of Fancy, till in shadowy design
  I find the smiling features of an old sweetheart of mine.

  James Whitcomb Riley

  Life, Design, Albums

  James Whitcomb Riley (1993). “The Complete Poetical Works of James Whitcomb Riley”, p.28, Indiana University Press

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• Even at our birth, death does but stand aside a little. And every day he looks toward us and muses somewhat to himself whether that day or the next he will draw nigh.

  Robert Bolt

  Birthday, Death, Dying

  "A Man For All Seasons (Act II)". Play by Robert Bolt based on the life of Sir Thomas More, July 1, 1960.

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• January 8 has been a lucky day for me. I have started all my books on that day, and all of them have been well received by the readers. I write eight to ten hours a day until I have a first draft, then I can relax a little. I am very disciplined. I write in silence and solitude. I light a candle to call inspiration and the muses, and I surround myself with pictures of the people I love, dead and alive.

  Isabel Allende

  Book, Inspiration, Writing

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• It's only those exceptional and rare individuals who have brilliant ideas delivered to them by the muse, complete and gift wrapped. The rest of us have to work at it.

  Alan Moore

  Ideas, Brilliant, Individual

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• My muse must come to me on union time.

  George Balanchine

  Dance, Ballet, Unions

  "Balanchine Said" by Arlene Croce, www.newyorker.com. January 26, 2009.

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• When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder that such trivial people should muse and thunder in such lovely language.

  D. H. Lawrence

  People, Lovely, Language

  Pansies (1929) "When I Read Shakespeare"

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• Just as anyone who listens to the muse will hear, you can write out of your own intention or out of inspiration. There is such a thing. It comes up and talks. And those who have heard deeply the rhythms and hymns of the gods, can recite those hymns in such a way that the gods will be attracted.

  Joseph Campbell

  Inspirational, Art, Writing

  Joseph Campbell, Phil Cousineau, Stuart L. Brown (1990). “The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work”, p.124, New World Library

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• I learned to produce whether I wanted to or not. It would be easy to say oh, I have writer's block, oh, I have to wait for my muse. I don't. Chain that muse to your desk and get the job done.

  Barbara Kingsolver

  Jobs, Block, Waiting

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• Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses.

  Amy Tan

  Kindness, Inspiration, Flukes

  Amy Tan (2004). “The Opposite of Fate: A Book of Musings”

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• I guess my husband is a muse as well.

  Tori Amos

  Husband, My Husband, Wells

  "Musician Tori Amos". "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. September 20, 2011.

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• For me, a muse is someone who looks glamorous but is quite passive, whereas I was very hard-working. I worked from 9am to sometimes 9pm, or even 2am. I certainly wasn't passive

  Loulou de la Falaise

  Hard Work, Looks, Sometimes

  "60 Seconds: Loulou de la Falaise". Interview With Paul Kevan, metro.co.uk. December 29, 2006.

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• I truly believe that a beautiful woman is a beautiful woman, but a beautiful woman with a brain is an absolutely lethal combination. Women of integrity, depth, sensuality and strength have always been my source of inspiration, the reason for what I do and how I got to where I am today. They are all my muse. If my quest, in what I do - to make women look and feel beautiful - reflects even a tiny fraction of my deep-rooted respect for them, and succeeds in celebrating these lives of strength and substance, then I will consider it a job well done.

  Prabal Gurung

  Beautiful, Jobs, Integrity

  "On Women, Power and Fashion" by Prabal Gurung, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 5, 2013.

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• One expected growth, change; without it, the world was less, the well of inspiration dried up, the muses fled.

  Charles de Lint

  Inspiration, Growth, World

  "Memory and Dream". Book by Charles de Lint, 1994.

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• Writing is self-reinforcing. Don't make a fetish out of it, and don't surrender to the myth of the garret, or the myth of the chained muse. It's like playing the guitar, or practicing taekwondo, or having sex. The more you do, the better you get. The better you get, the better it feels. The better it feels, the more you want to do.

  Jay Lake

  Sex, Writing, Guitar

  Interview with Patrick Wolohan, www.sfsignal.com. August 24, 2009.

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• I am impressed by the way Annie Kevans captured the different types of beauties that have been my inspiration and my muses from my grandmother to artists like David Bowie and Boy George.

  Jean Paul Gaultier

  Inspiration, Grandmother, Artist

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• I am imbued with the notion that a Muse is necessarily a dead woman, inaccessible or absent; that a poetic structure - like the canon, which is only a hole surrounded by steel - can be based only on what one does not have; and that ultimately one can write only to fill a void or at the least to situate, in relation to the most lucid part of ourselves, the place where this incommensurable abyss yawns within us.

  Michel Leiris

  Writing, Doe, Steel

  Michel Leiris, Richard Howard (1992). “Manhood: A Journey from Childhood Into the Fierce Order of Virility”, p.105, University of Chicago Press

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• I believe in previous lives and the Muse—and that books and music exist before they are written and that they are propelled into material being by their own imperative to be born, via the offices of those willing servants of discipline, imagination and inspiration whom we call artists.

  Steven Pressfield

  Believe, Book, Inspiration

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• You can wait forever for the muse to sit on your shoulder, but most of the time you know what has to be done and inspiration is not going to help you.

  Nick Hornby

  Inspiration, Waiting, Forever

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• A good debater is not necessarily an effective vote-getter: you can find a hole in your opponent's argument through which you could drive a coach and four ringing jingle bells all the way, and thrill at the crystallization of a truth wrung out from a bloody dialogue - which, however, may warm only you and your muse, while the smiling paralogist has in the meantime made votes by the tens of thousands.

  William F. Buckley, Jr.

  Jingles, Thrill, Bells

  William F. Buckley, Jr. (1966). “The Unmaking of a Mayor”, Viking Adult

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• Yes. I guess it's the foolish romantic in me, but you see, I don’t think that sex is my Muse.

  Peter Murphy

  Funny, Romantic, Sex

  Peter Murphy (2015). “Lagan Love”, p.81, Fiction Studio Books

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• Bugs Bunny is my muse.

  Billy Collins

  Creativity, Bunnies, Bugs

  "Everyday moments, caught in time". "TED Talks", www.ted.com. 2012.

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• Within a bony labrinthean cave, Reached by the pulse of the aerial wave, This sibyl, sweet, and Mystic Sense is found, Muse, that presides o'er all the Powers of Sound.

  Abraham Coles

  Sweet, Loss, Pulse

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• To a historian libraries are food, shelter, and even muse. They are of two kinds: the library of published material, books, pamphlets, periodicals, and the archive of unpublished papers and documents.

  Barbara Tuchman

  Book, Two, Cooking

  Barbara W. Tuchman (2011). “Practicing History: Selected Essays”, p.76, Random House

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• Inspiration is hogwash. My work comes directly out of my loves and hates. Muses don't whisper in my ear, and ideas don't flow over my body like a cool rain.

  James Victore

  Hate, Rain, Inspiration

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• The feel of a canoe gunnel at the thigh, the splash of flying spray in the face, the rhythm of the snowshoe trail, the beckoning of far-off hills and valleys, the majesty of the tempest, the calm and silent presence of the trees that seem to muse and ponder in their silence; the trust and confidence of small living creatures, the company of simple men; these have been my inspiration and my guide. Without them I am nothing.

  Grey Owl

  Inspiration, Men, Simple

  Grey Owl (2010). “Pilgrims of the Wild”, p.28, Dundurn

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