It seems to me madness to wake up in the morning and do something other than paint, considering that one may not wake up the following morning.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of pursuing one's passion and creativity each day as life is uncertain.
In this quote, Frank Auerbach expresses the idea that life is fleeting and unpredictable, which makes it essential to engage in one's true passion—painting, in his case—every day. He suggests that choosing not to embrace one's creative calling feels irrational in the face of life's uncertainties, urging individuals to prioritize their passions amid the unpredictability of existence.
In practice
In a motivational speech about following your dreams, you could use this quote to highlight the importance of pursuing one's passion.
To put down an ideogram of a table so that people will recognize it as a table is not the work of a painter, but to sense it for a moment as a magic carpet with a leg hanging down at each corner is the beginning of a painter's imagination.
Mighty is geometry; joined with art, resistless.
In fact, most artists want to make things a bit more difficult for themselves as they go along, to challenge themselves.
Because you have things like 'American Idol' and you've got radio stations that play music made entirely by computers, it's easy to forget there are bands with actual people playing actual instruments that rock.
One good song with a message can bring a point more deeply to more people than a thousand rallies.
My mind and fingers have worked like the damned. Homer, the Bible, Plato, Locke, Lamartine, Chateaubriand, Beethoven, Bach, Hummel, Mozart, Weber are all around me. I study them. I devour them with fury.
A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.
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