You've got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to behave.
Billie HolidayRead
One day a whole damn song fell into place in my head.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the sudden burst of creativity and inspiration that can lead to great artistic expression.
Billie Holiday's quote conveys the idea that inspiration can strike unexpectedly, resulting in a complete creative work coming together effortlessly. This moment of clarity, where everything aligns, is something many artists experience, suggesting that creativity often involves both hard work and serendipitous moments of insight.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about the creative process during an art workshop.
You've got to have something to eat and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to behave.
I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been.
A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted.
Don't threaten me with love, baby. Let's just go walking in the rain.
I joined Count Basie's band to make a little money and to see the world. For two years I didn't see anything but the inside of a Blue Goose bus, and I never got to send home a quarter.
Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose.
Beauty is a primeval phenomenon, which itself never makes its appearance, but the reflection of which is visible in a thousand different utterances of the creative mind, and is as various as nature herself.
The problem with too beautiful a view is that it's alright for the mulling stage. But for the writing stage, you want to be somewhere without a view, especially if it is very different from what you're writing.
I love that moment just before the curtain goes up, whether I'm sitting in the audience or standing backstage. It's full of expectation. It's a thrill that's unequaled anywhere.
For me, the subject is of secondary importance: I want to convey what is alive between me and the subject.
Our music has depth, and attempts philosophical thought and meaning with discussions of infinity, eternity and mortality. There is a line which people cross that turns it into some magical, mystical realm, for which I dont claim responsibility and dont hold any great truck with.
A film is - or should be - more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what's behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.
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