At Vienna, one of the audience affirmed publicly that my performance was not surprising, for he had distinctly seen, while I was playing my variations, the devil at my elbow, directing my arm and guiding my bow. My resemblance to the devil was a proof of my origin.
Interpretation
Paganini suggests that his extraordinary musical talent might be seen as otherworldly or inspired by dark forces.
In this quote, Niccolo Paganini reflects on the perception of his talent as being so remarkable that it evokes supernatural explanations. The audience member's assertion that the 'devil' guided him highlights the fine line between genius and the uncanny, suggesting that exceptional skill can sometimes lead to unfounded assumptions about its source. Paganini's self-awareness regarding the public's fascination with his talent reveals the pressure and intrigue surrounding artists whose abilities defy conventional understanding.
In practice
In a discussion about the struggles of artists, this quote could be shared to illustrate the misconceptions surrounding extraordinary talent.
When I attained my seventh year, my father, whose ear was unmusical but who was nevertheless passionately fond of music, gave me my elementary lessons on the violin; in a very few months, I was able to play all manner of compositions at sight.
And then he danced,-all foreigners excel the serious Angels in the eloquence of pantomime;-he danced, I say, right well, with emphasis, and a'so with good sense-a thing in footing indispensable: he danced without theatrical pretence, not like a ballet-master in the van of his drill'd nymphs, but like a gentleman.
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.
People ask me if I ever thought of writing a children's book. I say, 'If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children's book', but otherwise the idea of being conscious of who you're directing the story to is anathema to me, because, in my view, fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable.
Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken.
Cooking is not a craft to get into for money. The money may come, or it may not. But you must get into it for the craft and the culture.
The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion.
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