If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven, and very, very few persons.
James ThurberRead
Unless artists can remember what it was to be a little boy, they are only half complete as artist and as man.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Artists need to connect with their childhood to fully realize their potential.
James Thurber emphasizes the importance of childhood experiences in shaping an artist's creativity and understanding. Remembering the innocence, wonder, and imagination of being a child allows artists to connect deeply with their work and express themselves more authentically, thus becoming more complete as both artists and individuals.
Themes
ArtistsChildhoodCreativityImaginationExpression
In practice
Example use cases
During an art workshop, I shared this quote to inspire participants to tap into their childhood memories while creating.
More from James Thurber
All quotes →Speed is scarcely the noblest virtue of graphic composition, but it has its curious rewards. There is a sense of getting somewhere fast, which satisfies a native American urge.
James ThurberRead
The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.
James ThurberRead
Things have dropped from me. I have outlived certain desires; I have lost friends, some by death... others through sheer inability to cross the street.
James ThurberRead
The appreciative smile, the chuckle, the soundless mirth, so important to the success of comedy, cannot be understood unless one sits among the audience and feels the warmth created by the quality of laughter that the audience takes home with it.
James ThurberRead
These are the days of bootleg love.
James ThurberRead
Similar quotes
You can't expect someone born into a family with no music...to understand when I'm conducting the Schönberg Variations.
Daniel BarenboimRead
Compose with utter freedom and edit with utter discipline.
Erica JongRead
The true theater, because it moves and makes use of living instruments, continues to stir up shadows where life has never ceased to grope its way.
Antonin ArtaudRead
A lot of the shadow self is the home of poetry, story, prayer. My deepest understandings are often released from the part of me of which I am least aware most of the time.
Madeleine L'EngleRead
I want to write poems that are natural, luminous, deep, spare. I dream of an art so transparent that you can look through and see the world.
Stanley KunitzRead
I'm one of the culprits who keeps turning stuff around, shaking up original tunes and trying to stand the canon on its ear. But sometimes, you just need to sing the song.
Kurt EllingRead