Quotes on Life

You don't make art after you become an artist. You become an artist by ceaselessly making art.

The poor don't know that their function in life is to exercise our generosity.

Life has no meaning the moment you lose the illusion of being eternal.

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

I tell you the past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, no just for tomorrow, but in the here and now. Keep moving and forget the post mortems; and remember, no one can get the jump on the future.

I wondered about the science of storms and how sometimes it seemed that a storm wanted to break the world and how the world refused to break.

I think of my life as a kind of music, not always good music but still having form and melody.

You have had many sadnesses, large ones, which passed. ... But please, ask yourself whether these large sadnesses haven't rather gone right through you [that is, passed through you]. Perhaps many things inside you have been transformed; perhaps somewhere, someplace deep inside your being, you have undergone important changes while you were sad.

Sometimes you have to trust people enough to let them succeed and love them enough to let them fail.

I am better now. Word of honour: I am better now.

So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?

Every religion lies. Every moral precept is a delusion. Even the stars are a mirage. The truth is darkness, and the only thing that matters is making a statement before one enters it. Cutting the skin of the world and leaving a scar. That's all history is, after all: scar tissue.

Everyone needs a hobby, he said. And everyone needs a miracle or two, just to prove life is more than just one long trudge from the cradle to the grave.

Why do we smile? Why do we laugh? Why do we feel alone? Why are we sad and confused? Why do we read poetry? Why do we cry when we see a painting? Why is there a riot in the heart when we love? Why do we feel shame? What is that thing in the pit of your stomach called desire?

Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.

When we put down ideas of what life should be like, we are free to wholeheartedly say yes to our life as it is.

The thousands of possible lives that used to spread out in front of me have snapped shut into one, and all I get is what I've got. It's time to pass on the possibilities, all those deliciously half-open doors, to my children, and drive them to the airports, and wish them bon voyage.

We've all received our share of good fortune, so that's my definition of much. A single blessing is all the bounty in the world, and if you've been blessed at all you're meant to pass some of that on. You're meant to set a positive example. That's our responsibility

It's simple: You get a part. You play a part. You play it well. You do your work and you go home. And what is wonderful about movies is that once they're done, they belong to the people. Once you make it, it's what they see. That's where my head is at.

You can achieve anything if you believe in yourself. But the opposite is also true; without strong self-belief you will not go far.

So when I cease to be I want to go back...to the sea! Oh for the life of a sardine! That is the life for me!