The problem with taking offense is that it's really hard to figure out what to do with it after you're done using it. Better to just leave it on the table and walk away. Umbrage untaken quietly disappears.
Seth GodinRead
Art is what we call...the thing an artist does. It's not the medium or the oil or the price or whether it hangs on a wall or you eat it. What matters, what makes it art, is that the person who made it overcame the resistance, ignored the voice of doubt and made something worth making. Something risky. Something human. Art is not in the ...eye of the beholder. It's in the soul of the artist.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Art is defined by the artist's willingness to create despite challenges and doubts.
This quote emphasizes that true art is not just about the materials used or the price, but rather the emotional and personal journey of the artist. It highlights the importance of overcoming inner resistance and doubt to create meaningful work that resonates on a human level, asserting that the essence of art lies in the soul of the creator rather than the perception of the viewer.
Themes
ArtArtistCreationCreativitySoulResistance
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about pursuing artistic endeavors despite challenges.
More from Seth Godin
All quotes →Not adding value is the same as taking it away.
Seth GodinRead
Excellence isn’t about meeting the spec, it’s about setting the spec. It defines what the consumer sees as quality right this minute, and tomorrow, if you’re good, you’ll reset that expectation again
Seth GodinRead
Living with doubt ... is almost always more profitable than living with certainty. _x000D_ People don't like doubt, so they pay money and give up opportunities to avoid it. _x000D_ Entrepreneurshi p is largely about living with doubt. If you need reassurance, you're giving up quite a bit to get it. On the other hand, if you can get in the habit of seeking out uncertainty, you'll have developed a great instinct.
Seth GodinRead
The danger of the Web is that you can go from idea to public announcement in under ten minutes.
Seth GodinRead
Art isn't only a painting. Art is anything that is creative, passionate and personal. Art is the unique work of a human being created to touch another. Art is created to have an impact, to change someone else.
Seth GodinRead
Similar quotes
I believe that in the history of art and of thought there has always been at every living moment of culture a will to renewal. This is not the prerogative of the last decade only. All history is nothing but a succession of crises - of rupture, repudiation and resistance. When there is no crisis, there is stagnation, petrifaction and death. All thought, all art is aggressive.
Eugene IonescoRead
I know my voice has a limited range of motion; I don't write dramatic monologues and pretend to be other people. But so far, my voice is broad enough to accommodate most of what I want to put into my poetry. I like my persona; I often wish I were him and not me.
Billy CollinsRead
Let my name perish, -- the poetry is good poetry and the music is good music,_x000D_ and beauty dieth not, and the heart that needs it will find it.
Sidney LanierRead
The thing I always say to any writer that I'm working with is: Just make sure that in any argument, EVERYONE is right. I want every single person arguing a righteous side of the argument. That makes interesting drama.
David FincherRead
All the charming and beautiful things, from the Song of Songs, to bouillabaisse, and from the nine Beethoven symphonies to the Martini cocktail, have been given to humanity by men who, when the hour came, turned from tap water to something with color in it, and more in it than mere oxygen and hydrogen.
H. L. MenckenRead
Artistically I am still a child with a whole life ahead of me to discover and create. I want something, but I won't know what it is until I succeed in doing it.
Alberto GiacomettiRead