INSPIRATION QUOTES

quotations about inspiration

Inspiration quote

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.

ALBERT EINSTEIN

Out of My Later Years

Tags: Albert Einstein


Inspiration is the burning lamp of genius.

ALEXANDER JOLLY

attributed, Day's Collacon


The torpid artist seeks inspiration at any cost, by virtue or by vice, by friend or by fiend, by prayer or by wine.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

The Conduct of Life

Tags: Ralph Waldo Emerson


When inspiration does not come to me, I go halfway to meet it.

SIGMUND FREUD

attributed, Great Quotes for Great Educators

Tags: Sigmund Freud


I think inspiration is always around; it's just a question of whether or not you're noticing it.

JOHN GREEN

Chicago Public Library interview

Tags: John Green


The poet invites inspiration by meditation, as the prophets raised themselves to ecstasies by prayer.

VICTOR HUGO

"Scraps of Philosophy and Criticism", The New-England Magazine, September 9, 1835

Tags: Victor Hugo


Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

THOMAS EDISON

Life

Tags: Thomas Edison


Inspiration is never genuine if it is known as inspiration at the time. True inspiration always steals on a person; its importance not being fully recognised for some time.

SAMUEL BUTLER

The Note-Books of Samuel Butler


I don't know anything about inspiration because I don't know what inspiration is; I've heard about it, but I never saw it.

WILLIAM FAULKNER

attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes

Tags: William Faulkner


Do we not all agree to call rapid thought and noble impulse by the name of inspiration? After our subtlest analysis of the mental process, we must still say that our highest thoughts and our best deeds are all given to us.

GEORGE ELIOT

Adam Bede

Tags: George Eliot


I don't believe in total freedom for the artist. Left on his own, free to do anything he likes, the artist ends up doing nothing at all. If there's one thing that's dangerous for an artist, it's precisely this question of total freedom, waiting for inspiration and all the rest of it.

FEDERICO FELLINI

I'm a Born Liar: A Fellini Lexicon


Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists. There is, there has been, there will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It's made up of all those who've consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. It may include doctors, teachers, gardeners -- I could list a hundred more professions. Their work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem that they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know."

WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA

Nobel lecture, December 7, 1996


Work sometimes comes from inspiration, but more often inspiration comes from work.

EVAN ESAR

20,000 Quips & Quotes


Inspiration is the windfall from hard work and focus. Muses are too unreliable to keep on the payroll.

HELEN HANSON

"For Writers", July 14, 2010


You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write.

SAUL BELLOW

attributed, Something About the Author

Tags: Saul Bellow


Don't loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don't get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it.

JACK LONDON

"Getting Into Print", The Editor, 1903

Tags: Jack London


You have to realise that a lot of the time, you're going to be writing without inspiration. The trick is to write just as well without it as with. Of course, you write less readily and fluently without it; but the interesting thing is to look at the private journals and letters of great writers and see how much of the time they just had to do without inspiration.

PHILIP PULLMAN

"Q&As", official website


I've described my usual writing process as scrambling from peak to peak on inspiration through foggy valleys of despised logic.

LOIS MCMASTER BUJOLD

Young Miles

Tags: Lois McMaster Bujold


Inspiration is a trick that poets have invented to give themselves importance.

JEAN ANOUILH

attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes

Tags: Jean Anouilh


All the effort in the world won't matter if you're not inspired.

CHUCK PALAHNIUK

Diary

Tags: Chuck Palahniuk