Some brief passages from this short work by Ted Orlando and David Bayles.
"Life is short, art long, opportunity fleeting, experience treacherous, judgment difficult."
-Hippocrates (460-400 B.C.)
"...In large measure becoming an artist consists in learning to accept yourself, which makes your work more personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive.
Something about making art has to do with overcoming things, giving us clear opportunity for doing things in ways we have always known we should do them.
The function of the overwhelming majority of your artwork is simply to teach you how to make the small fraction of your artwork that soars. One of the basic a difficult lessons every artist must learn is that even the failed pieces are essential.
...you learn how to make your work by making your work
"Artists don't get down to work until the pain working is exceeded by the pain of not working."
-Stephen DeStaebler
Basically, those who survive as an artist are those who have learned how to continue-or more precisely, have learned not to quit. Quitting is fundamentally different from stopping. The latter happens all the time. Quitting happens once. Quitting means not starting again-and art is all about starting again."