It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful.
Benjamin BrittenRead
The old idea of a composer suddenly having a terrific idea and sitting up all night to write it is nonsense. Nighttime is for sleeping.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that creativity should not be impulsive and that rest is essential for productive work.
Benjamin Britten's quote challenges the romantic notion of the inspired composer who sacrifices sleep for the sake of creativity. Instead, he suggests that true artistic work is a disciplined process that requires adequate rest, undermining the stereotype of the 'tortured genius' and promoting a healthier balance between work and rest.
Themes
CreativityInspirationRestWorkDiscipline
In practice
Example use cases
A motivational speech on the importance of work-life balance in creative fields.
More from Benjamin Britten
All quotes →These two are not two, love has made them one. Amo Ergo Sum! And by its mystery each is no less but more.
Benjamin BrittenRead
Composing is like driving down a foggy road toward a house. Slowly you see more details of the house-the color of the slates and bricks, the shape of the windows. The notes are the bricks and the mortar of the house.
Benjamin BrittenRead
Similar quotes
As long as that spark of passion is missing there is no human significance in the performance.
Henry MillerRead
To tell of disappointment and misery, to thicken the darkness of futurity, and perplex the labyrinth of uncertainty, has been always a delicious employment of the poets
Samuel JohnsonRead
The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it... try to fake three laughs in an hour - ha ha ha ha ha - they'll take you away, man. You can't.
Lenny BruceRead
People hide behind the word aesthetic. They say, ‘Well, it’s just that designer’s aesthetic.’ But when you see 18 seasons in a row and not one single model outside a certain skin color…? There are people in the industry who are advocates, who support diversity. And there are people who do not. I don’t get it. Beauty is universal. These doors have to open.
Joan SmallsRead
I mean by a picture a beautiful romantic dream of something that never was, never will be - in a light better than any light that ever shone - in a land no one can define, or remember, only desire
Edward Burne-JonesRead
Rock 'n' Roll is a combination of good ideas dried up by fads, terrible junk, hideous failings in taste and judgment, gullibility and manipulation, moments of unbelievable clarity and invention, pleasure, fun, vulgarity, excess, novelty and utter enervation.
Greil MarcusRead