All art really does is keep you focused on questions of humanity, and it really is about how do we get on with our maker.
David BowieRead
Searching for music is like searching for God. They're very similar. There's an effort to reclaim the unmentionable, the unsayable, the unseeable, the unspeakable, all those things, comes into being a composer and to writing music and to searching for notes and pieces of musical information that don't exist.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The pursuit of music and spirituality both involve a deep search for the intangible and profound.
David Bowie's quote suggests that the quest for musical creativity parallels the search for spiritual meaning. Both pursuits require an effort to tap into the deeper aspects of existence—the unmentionable and mysterious elements that shape our understanding of life and art. Composers, much like seekers of spirituality, strive to bring to light those elements that are often hard to express or comprehend.
Themes
MusicGodCreativitySpiritualitySearch
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of creativity, you might quote Bowie to inspire musicians.
More from David Bowie
All quotes →I guess, taking away all the theatrics or the costuming and the outer layers of what I do, I'm a writer... I write.
David BowieRead
I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human.
David BowieRead
Nothing prepared me for your smile
David BowieRead
But I've got to think of myself as the luckiest guy. Robert Johnson only had one album's worth of work as his legacy. That's all that life allowed him.
David BowieRead
I'm an early riser. I get up between five and six, have coffee, and read for a couple of hours before everyone else gets up.
David BowieRead
Similar quotes
Self-censorship is a lie to yourself; if you are going to be trying to seriously create art, to create literary art, and you decide to hold back, to censor yourself, then you are a fool to yourself and it would be better that you kept your mouth shut and did not speak.
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I don't know why people expect art to make sense. They accept the fact that life doesn't make sense.
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In Bach, the vital cells of music are united as the world is in God.
Gustav MahlerRead
The music of Africa is big sound: it's the sound of a community
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Writing is the hardest work in the world. I have been a bricklayer and a truck driver, and I tell you – as if you haven't been told a million times already – that writing is harder. Lonelier. And nobler and more enriching.
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To hell with reality! I want to die in music, not in reason or in prose. People don't deserve the restraint we show by not going into delirium in front of them. To hell with them!
Louis-Ferdinand CelineRead