Artistic Courage Quotes

Courage in an artist or writer is different from the courage of firefighters, who rescue people and risk their own lives. Artistic courage might be conceptualized as an internal drama about overcoming rules or inhibitions, dicta of all kinds, the art a manifestation or result of a multitude of processes. ~ Lynne Tillman

Timid young artists, adding parental fears to their own, often give up their sunny dreams of artistic careers, settling into the twilight world of could-have-beens and regrets. ~ Julia Cameron

When you write, you're alone in a room. And when someone reads a book, they're alone in a room, too, usually. It's a really intimate exchange. And so people ask me where I get the boldness to talk about this or that, but I didn't feel like it required any sort of courage, because I was alone. Sometimes it feels weird for people to read it. ~ Donald Miller

For those minutes courage flowed like wine out of the November dusk, and he was the eternal hero, one with the sea-rover on the prow of a Norse galley, one with Roland and Horatius, Sir Nigel and Ted Coy, scraped and stripped into trim and then flung by his own will into the breach, beating back the tide, hearing from afar the thunder of cheers . . . finally bruised and weary, but still elusive, circling an end, twisting, changing pace, straight-arming . . . falling behind the Groton goal with two men on his legs, in the only touchdown of the game. THE ~ F Scott Fitzgerald

My own liberation only became possible once I had grasped the fact that fear of the truth and ignorance are not our inescapable fate. We choose them. In contrast to children, adults have the chance of dispensing with repression without being killed by the pain. We can decide to dispel our blindness and the intellectual defenses ingrained in us by our upbringing. Only when I knew with certainty, because I had experienced it in myself, that destructiveness and self-destructiveness can be resolved, did I stop using up valuable energy trying to understand those who had caused unnecessary pain. Only then did I have the courage to take a dispassionate look at their deeds and condemn them. ~ Alice Miller

What is it you really want? Are you really going to be happy when you get the object? What will it bring you? Is what you're telling yourself really true? You have the choice, you can keep on getting hit by the wave or you can get the courage to run towards it and dive right through it - everything starts with you. ~ Evan Sutter

I want to be like them when I am a man: wide-shouldered, with a ready laugh, a spine of steel, and courage beyond compare. ~ Karen Marie Moning

It all rests within you. You can be happy or sad, full of enthusiasm or discouragement. You can be strong or weak. You can choose to think more and more of the good characteristics, and your mind will develop them in you, for you. Think strongly on courage, strength, and self-confidence. Expect the good, peace, love and joy, and feel them over and over again. Sleep with them, eat with them, walk with them, and be these wonderful qualities ~ Ulrike

One woman sent me on a letter written to her by her daughter, and the young girl's words are a remarkable statement about artistic creation as an infinitely versatile and subtle form of communication:
'...How many words does a person know?' she asks her mother. 'How many does he use in his everyday vocabulary? One hundred, two, three? We wrap our feelings up in words, try to express in words sorrow and joy and any sort of emotion, the very things that can't in fact be expressed. Romeo uttered beautiful words to Juliet, vivid, expressive words, but they surely didn't say even half of what made his heart feel as if it was ready to jump out of his chest, and stopped him breathing, and made Juliet forget everything except her love?
There's another kind of language, another form of communication: by means of feeling, and images. That is the contact that stops people being separated from each other, that brings down barriers. Will, feeling, emotion - these remove obstacles from between people who otherwise stand on opposite sides of a mirror, on opposite sides of a door.. The frames of the screen move out, and the world which used to be partitioned off comes into us, becomes something real... And this doesn't happen through little Audrey, it's Tarkovsky himself addressing the audience directly, as they sit on the other side of the screen. There's no death, there is immortality. Time is one and undivided, as it says in one of the poems. "At the table are great-grandfathers ~ Andrei Tarkovsky

The difficult thing is that vulnerability is the first thing I look for in you and the last thing I'm willing to show you. In you, it's courage and daring. In me, it's weakness. ~ Brene Brown

Pavel interrupted him. "I'll explain what the Talmund is to you, with an example. Now listen carefully: Two chimneysweeps fall down the flue of a chimney; one comes out all covered with soot, the other comes out clean: which of the two goes to wash himself?"
Suspecting a trap, Piotr looked around, as if seeking help. Then he plucked up his courage and answered: "The one who's dirty goes to wash."
"Wrong," Pavel said. "The one who's dirty sees the other man's face, and it's clean, so he thinks he's clean, too. Instead, the clean one see shte soot on the other one's face, believes he's dirty himself, and goes to wash. You understand?"
"I understand. That makes sense."
"But wait; I haven't finished the example. Now I'll ask you a second question. Those two chimneysweeps fall a second time down the same flue, and again one is dirty and one isn't. Which one goes to wash?"
"I told you I understand. The clean one goes to wash."
"Wrong," Pavel said mercilessly. "When he washed after the first fall, the clean man saw that the water in his basin didn't get dirty, and the dirty man realized why the clean man had gone to wash. So, this time, the dirty chimneysweep went and washed."
Piotr listened to this, with his mouth open, half in fright and half in curiosity.
"And now the third question. The pair falls down the flue a third time. Which of the two goes to wash?"
"From now on, the dirty one will go and wash,"
"Wrong again. Did ~ Primo Levi

Be like Sindbad. Venture forth! Embosom the waves, let your shoes be sucked from your feet and your very trousers enticed by the frothing deep. The ambiguous sea awaits, I told them, marry it!

There's nothing out there, they said.

Wrong, I said, absolutely wrong. There are waltzes, sword canes, and sea wrack dazzling to the eyes. ~ Donald Barthelme

One thing I can assure you, life is not easy, but it can be simple. Focus on what's important and don't let your distractions derail you. ~ Tony Curl

Anyone can stay the same. It takes courage to change ~ John Assaraf

Remember, we show courage in many ways. ~ Jody Hedlund

Courage is the counterpoint of fear. Courage appears when in war or business, one is indeed scared. ~ G.R. Gopinath

In my humble opinion, those who come to engage in debates of consequence, and who challenge accepted wisdom, should expect to be treated badly. Nonetheless, they must stand undaunted. That is required. And that should be expected. For it is bravery that is required to secure freedom. ~ Clarence Thomas

I know that some of the great painters and some of the great artists didn't even start to 'peak', as you say, till they were in their fifties and sixties. And God knows, history is full of artistic people that weren't even recognized till they were dead and gone. ~ Joe Perry

Our distracted digital world is here to stay, so the question is more of how we can truly embrace the beauty that is the stillness and the silence. ~ Tony Curl

I tried telling my teacher about it, but she/he ignored me and told me 'not right now' and to get in line. ~ Charlena E. Jackson

It takes more courage to examine the dark corners of your own soul than it does for a soldier to fight on a battlefield ~ W.B.Yeats

What's old collapses, times change, and new life blossoms in the ruins. ~ Friedrich Schiller

(Y)ou should never let yourself get swept away by the crowd. Sometimes everyone you know can be saying something or believing something and it can just be dead wrong. All around you there might be people getting all excited or panicked and yelling for you to do the wrong thing or believe the wrong thing. They can make it very hard for you to refuse them or even just disagree with them out loud. People get angry at you when you disagree with them - especially when they're wrong - and nobody likes to be unpopular or have people angry at them. Sometimes it takes a lot of courage to use your reason and your heart and stand up for what's true ~ Andrew Klavan

Children are gentle and heed. Adults are tough and seize. Wise men and women have the strength and flexibility to do what's right. ~ Stefan Emunds

Courage isn't something you are born with. It comes to you with experience. ~ Patricia Neal

I never expected ... I never
"
His eyes flared as he seemed to recognise where I was going with my words. He advanced on me, his body moving into my space until he stood directly in front of me. "Don't," he said, almost pleadingly. "Don't. Please don't"
I lifted my gaze, gathering all my courage, refusing to back down. "I never expected to fall in love with you. And I thought maybe ... "
... you could love me back. Even if you leave. You could leave loving me. ~ Mia Sheridan

Despite the popular idea of anarchists as violent men, Anarchism is the one non-violent social philosophy. ... The function of the Anarchist is two-fold. By daily courage in non-cooperation with the tyrannical forces of the State and the Church, he helps to tear down present society; the Anarchist by daily cooperation with his fellows in overcoming evil with good-will and solidarity builds toward the anarchistic commonwealth which is formed by voluntary action with the right of secession. ~ Ammon Hennacy

Judgement of others and ourselves always comes from a place of fear. It is fear that keeps us from living authentically all that we say we value. ~ Shannon L. Alder

Then don't you dare tell me my dreams are insane! Because my dreams are what I live for! ~ Robert Thier

Growth requires courage, strength and the willingness to go beyond fear. ~ Catherine Louise Birmingham

Courage and willingness to just go for it, whether it is a conversation or a spontaneous trip or trying new things that are scary - it is a really attractive quality. ~ Alanis Morissette

It takes courage to love someone because it's a wonderful adventure. ~ Debasish Mridha

Courage is just dreams with shoes on. ~ Reba Riley

Courage is all about taking action. Courage requires discipline, vitality, and guts to face those tasks in your profession that make you feel uncomfortable. ~ David Sandler

Like much else nowadays I leave it feeling stupid, like a man who lost his way long ago but presses on along a road that may lead nowhere. ~ J.M. Coetzee

Art too is just a way of living, and however one lives, one can, without knowing, prepare for it; in everything real one is closer to it, more its neighbor, than in the unreal half-artistic professions, which, while they pretend to be close to art, in practice deny and attack the existence of all art - as, for example, all of journalism does and almost all criticism and three quarters of what is called (and wants to be called) literature. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

Yea ! by your works are ye justified
toil unrelieved ;
Manifold labours, co-ordinate each to the sending achieved ;
Discipline, not of the feet but the soul, unremitting, unfeigned ;
Tortures unholy by flame and by maiming, known, faced, and disdained ;
Courage that suns
Only foolhardiness ; even by these, are ye worthy of your guns. ~ Gilbert Frankau

And still I look for the men who will dare to be
roses of England
wild roses of England
men who are wild roses of England
with metal thorns, beware!
but still more brave and still more rare
the courage of rosiness in a cabbage world
fragrance of roses in a stale stink of lies
rose-leaves to bewilder the clever fools
and rose-briars to strangle the machine. ~ D.H. Lawrence

There can be no great courage where there is no confidence or assurance, and half the battle is in the conviction that we can do what we undertake. ~ Orison Swett Marden

It is yin and yang. Light is the left hand of darkness ... how did it go? Light, dark. Fear, courage. Cold, warmth. Female, male. It is yourself ... both and one. A shadow on snow. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin

You stand now between anarchy and law. The Police have done their duty. Let the jury have the same courage so that the police can indeed rest in peace. The flowers of spring shall bloom upon their graves moistened by the tears of a great city. Outraged and violated law shall be redeemed and in their martyrdom anarchy shall be buried forever. ~ Jason Epstein

Some people have a hard time getting rid of stuff. If that's you, pray for God to give you the courage to get rid of things you don't really need or things He wants you to give away. This will help keep your surroundings organized and clutter-free. ~ Joyce Meyer

All women on earth
and men, too for that matter
hope for the kind of love that transforms us, raises us up out of the everyday, & gives us the courage to survive our little deaths: the heartache of unfulfilled dreams, of career and personal disappointments, of broken love affairs. ~ Lisa See

Joshua didn't say choose you next year whom you will serve; he spoke of "this day," while there is still daylight and before the darkness becomes more and more normal. ~ Neal A. Maxwell

Love is something you and I must have. We must have it because our spirit feeds upon it. We must have it because without it we become weak and faint. Without love our self-esteem weakens. Without it our courage fails. Without love we can no longer look out confidently at the world. ~ Chief Dan George

Prose cannot compete with the economy of poetry, the ability to have a full artistic experience in a short period of time. ~ Mary Karr

Real courage embraces the twin realities of current difficulty and ultimate triumph. ~ Max Lucado

Be thankful to those who refuse to help you, for they force you to summon upon your warrior within. ~ Miya Yamanouchi

I believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another. It is a beautiful thought. ~ Veronica Roth

More powerful than the will to win is the courage to begin. ~ Orrin Woodward