I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.
Langston HughesRead
An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.
Interpretation
Artists have the freedom to make choices in their work, and they should embrace those choices without fear.
This quote by Langston Hughes emphasizes the dual responsibility of artists: the freedom to select their creative expressions and the courage to follow through on their choices. It suggests that true artistic expression requires not just autonomy but also the bravery to explore one's creative instincts, even if they challenge convention or provoke criticism.
In practice
In a talk about creative processes, you might use this quote to inspire other artists to embrace their unique visions.
I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go.
My writing has been largely concerned with the depicting of Negro life in America.
I tire so of hearing people say, Let things take their course. Tomorrow is another day. I do not need my freedom when I'm dead. I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.
The calm, Cool face of the river, Asked me for a kiss
The only way to get a thing done is to start to do it, then keep on doing it, and finally you'll finish it.
Most musicians remain poor. But the music that they make, even if it does not bring them millions, gives millions of people happiness.
For the film maker must come by his convention, as painters and writers and musicians have done before him.
Entertainment and art are not isolated
Whenever I get an idea for a song, even before jotting down the notes, I can hear it in the orchestra, I can smell it in the scenery, I can see the kind of actor who will sing it, and I am aware of an audience listening to it.
If the King loves music, it is well with the land.
Bright gem instinct with music, vocal spark.
I grew up watching period dramas, as we all did in the 1980s and '90s - endless adaptations of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens - and I loved them. But I never saw anyone like me in them, so I decided to find a story to erode the excuses for me not doing one.
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