Top 72 Know Your Craft Quotes
#2. I think acting for sure takes a lot of dedication, especially when you're starting out, because it's so much rejection and it's so important to really study and know your craft.
Bitsie Tulloch
#3. I feel if I wanted to be taken seriously I have to study music the same way someone who wants to be a doctor would study medicine. You have to know your craft and by doing so I had to make sure to ignore what people were thinking as well.
James Vincent McMorrow
#4. The first thing you've got to do is know your craft, and then you can do something else with it.
Harry Shearer
#5. It is not enough to know your craft - you have to have feeling. Science is all very well, but for us imagination is worth far more.
Edouard Manet
#6. Actually the years when I was playing totally un - well, they were just roles that just went by the board, you wouldn't want to know. But anyway, I'm glad I had that chance to build my craft.
Angela Lansbury
#7. The big ideas always come in flashes. I don't really craft stories that much. I genuinely don't know where these people come from, and I've often wondered if writing is just a socially acceptable form of madness.
Taiye Selasi
#8. [Property] is a brilliant, chillingly revelatory piece of fiction, a work of craft, economy and such good merciless observation-one of those rare, crucial novels illuminating a history we think we know and understand so that after we've read it we'll never forget its truths.
Ali Smith
#9. But suicides have a special language.
Like carpenters they want to know which tools.
They never ask why build.
Twice I have so simply declared myself,
have possessed the enemy, eaten the enemy,
have taken on his craft, his magic.
Anne Sexton
#10. In case you've forgotten, Ethan Sullivan trained me. And in case you didn't know, Catcher Bell schooled me in sword craft. I was raised on 'difficult to work with.
Chloe Neill
#11. Craft is what we are expected to know; art is the unexpected use of our craft.
Ed Catmull
#12. I'd definitely like to study other things and keep on learning all the time, but I wouldn't want to do anything else. Ultimately, acting is my craft. I've always been interested in psychology and nutrition, but I don't know that I'd go and make that my profession.
Cindy Busby
#13. Rules such as "Write what you know," and "Show, don't tell," while doubtlessly grounded in good sense, can be ignored with impunity by any novelist nimble enough to get away with it. There is, in fact, only one rule in writing fiction: Whatever works, works.
Tom Robbins
#14. One thing I know for sure about raising children is that every single day a kid needs discipline ... But also every single day a kid needs a break.
Anne Lamott
#15. I was trained by Method acting teachers and we were taught that aside from whatever gift you may or may not have or the level of that gift, that you were obliged to know how to build a table. It's a craft. It's like being a ballerina or a violinist.
Ellen Barkin
#16. Backstory is like a flavour you can't quite pick, lurking in the layers of a curry. You know it's there and it enhances the flavour, but it's intangible and fleeting. Use it sparingly!
Sandy Vaile
#17. I know a lot of people who are very good at their craft who have learned - people behind the camera - who really have a lot to offer because they know what they're doing, they know what to do, they've made their mistakes.
Jeffrey Jones
#18. I kind of thought that stand-up comedy would suffer from the Internet because people seem to know more about the craft of stand-up than ever before. I thought it would seem trite. Kind of like if you know more about magicians, you wouldn't love them.
Jerry Seinfeld
#19. If God inspires your writing, others will know because it will inspire them when they read it.
Cecil Murphey
#20. I'm tired of having to consult a group of old white guys about my black girl craft. They don't even know what they're listening for or to.
Azealia Banks
#21. The more wisdom we know the more we may earn. Those who seek to learn more of their craft shall be richly rewarded.
George S. Clason
#22. On working with other writers: You develop honesty and you can then ask the really embarrassing questions. I have learned so many things I didn't want to know, and they were all a result of interesting interviews for background information.
Dan Alatorre
#23. I never really thought about acting as a child. It wasn't like, "This is the career that I want to pursue." So when I first started acting, I was more concerned with just being on a set and all of the woes of that, and I didn't really know it or understand it as a craft yet.
Blake Lively
#24. I know that spinning sets me in a trance; it soothes me and charges my batteries at the same time. When times are tough I sit down to spin during the news-broadcasts, with therapeutic results.
Elizabeth Zimmermann
#25. Every writer should know their target. Aim for the heart ~ hit that and all which follows is sheer ecstasy.
Muse
#26. But a writing project begins not just in doubt but also in faith-that if your passion is genuine, if you have mastered the elements of your craft, in the act of writing you will learn the rest of what you need to know in order to do justice to your subject.
Philip Gerard
#27. The great thing for me, now, is that writing has become more and more interesting. Not just as a craft but as a way into things that are not described. It's a thing of discovering. That's when writing is really working. You're on the trail of something, and you don't quite know what it is.
Sam Shepard
#28. What do I know of cultured ways, the gilt, the craft and the lie?
I, who was born in a naked land and bred in the open sky.
The subtle tongue, the sophist guile, they fail when the broadswords sing;
Rush in and die, dogs - I was a man before I was a king.
Robert E. Howard
#29. I bring my dogs on set with me, and my little dog Karoo is smart as a whip. She knows where the craft-services food tables are, so anytime I can't find her, I know she has found her way to that area. She's a funny dog.
Hilary Swank
#30. Bad improv happens with people who are inexperienced with each other and don't know the craft that well. But bad stand-up is something that could happen to someone at any level in their career.
Kristen Schaal
#31. I am nervous that the craft of songwriting is taking a nose dive ... And since I'm a songwriter and I connect with an interpretative, you know, interpretation of a song, I miss it. I just miss it.
Barry Manilow
#32. I know it's difficult in the beginning. But, listen. If you have the impulse to write, do yourself a favor, do the world a favor, and write.
Christy Hall
#33. Craft is not a category; it's a means. The folks running the museum [Museum of Arts and Design]are sharp, and they know this, but they are in a bind.
Jerry Saltz
#34. I know some really great actors who are pretty judgmental people, pretty critical people. But they're great actors. When they're acting, that's the craft.
Philip Seymour Hoffman
#35. People are suckers for the truth and they know it when they see it.
Open your soul and they will stop and watch.
Dan Alatorre
#36. To practice - write each and every day if possible - then try to attend professional writer's conferences where you can learn your craft, get to know fellow writers, and meet editors and agents.
James Dashner
#37. An author is similar to an actor. They play many characters in their lives - photographer, nurse, dancer, doctor, writer, etc. As an author, you have to learn your craft, know each and every element to become that character you're writing about to be able to live and breathe what they do.
Mischa Temaul
#38. It's not easy being an actor, and having said that, everybody's an actor. Do you know what I mean? Paris Hilton's an actor, which is kind of scary. But if you want to honor your craft and yourself, strive for the nobler instincts.
Patti LuPone
#39. You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more."
("The Castle")
Michael Connelly
#40. THE CREATIVITY IS JUST SOMETHING THAT, I DON'T KNOW, YOU WORK VERY HARD AT, BUT PART OF YOU SAYS THAT YOU WERE BORN WITH IT. IT'S A CRAFT LIKE EVERY OTHER, YOU HAVE TO KEEP SHARP AND YOU HAVE TO BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS.
Jon Bon Jovi
#42. Don't write what you know - what you know may bore you, and thus bore your readers. Write about what interests you - and interests you deeply - and your readers will catch fire at your words.
Valerie Sherwood
#43. What I didn't know that by sticking to craft we would blow open some doors that I never saw opened before.
James Lipton
#44. I guess it's just my job to somehow balance knowing that every song is going to come differently and be different, but also know that, on the other hand, I am a songwriter and I am a craftsman, and I do have a craft and a technique and a method. So I need to balance the technique and the method.
Brett Dennen
#45. Ms. Craft, while I'm sure your charming personality endears you to many people, is there anyone you know who would want to kill you?
Kalayna Price
#46. If you love your craft there will be passion. Most of my films are with people who are really passionate about what they are doing and know how to do something well.
Chris Hegedus
#47. Photography is a craft. Anyone can learn a craft with normal intelligence and application. To take it beyond the craft is something else. That's when magic comes in. And I don't know that there's any explanation for that.
Elliott Erwitt
#48. I don't think there's any company that has the same tools as Martha Stewart Living does, and people know that. They really love the tools and, if you have the tools, you can pretty much do the craft.
Martha Stewart
#49. They [traditional studios] probably don't understand is that it's a genuine advancement in the actor's tradition. And you know, the tradition and craft of acting. And it's the latest step. You know, we, we tend to find forms of delivering stories that fit our times.
Andy Serkis
#50. I think this is an exciting time to be a female filmmaker. Trust your instincts, work harder than anyone else and learn your craft. Know it all. This means learn how to shoot, edit, produce and direct. Get as much experience as you can and watch a lot of films.
Alex Hammond
#51. I am a good model because I have mastered my craft. I have accepted my body, I know it well and I know how to move in front of the camera.
Crystal Renn
#52. People should know better than to be an ass in front of writers. We immortalize things. Lots of things. And we take liberties with character descriptions.
Michelle M. Pillow
#53. My nightly craft is winged in white, a dragon of night dark sea.
Swift born, dream bound and rudderless, her captain and crew are me.
We've sailed a hundred sleeping tides where no seaman's ever been
And only my white-winged craft and I know the wonders we have seen.
Anne McCaffrey
#54. You know, the dirty secret in the Director's Guild is that the average life expectancy of Director's Guild members is 57 years old. The stress level is so high and directors are generally really out of shape, cause they sit in the chair and they eat craft service.
Eli Roth
#55. Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful- 1834
William Morris
#56. I like to make things, but I looked at old craft books on weaving or mosaics or whatever, I'm like, 'I don't really know anything about that stuff.'
Amy Sedaris
#57. Construct your life plans before satan attempts to destruct you with his death plots. I know this for sure; he is not in to heal! He just came to kill, to steal and destroy! Satan is not wise, it is only crafty!
Israelmore Ayivor
#58. I just know that sameness, repetition, and conceptualizing are the acting craft's adversaries, and it seems more intelligent to start off within a framework where those things are, to some degree, taken out of your hands.
Jack Nicholson
#59. We didn't know what made "great TV." We were just trying to make a living and trying hard to honor the craft we had both fallen in love with over the years.
Joanna Gaines
#60. At seventeen I tried to write poetry confining myself solely to Anglo-Saxon words - don't know if it helped, but it made me more concrete ...
John Geddes
#61. You write what you know, and I know rock and roll.
Greg Kihn
#62. I am forever an advocate of books, both the reading of them and the writing. There is something sacred to me in that community. Because writing
and reading
is a solitary business. And it's good to know I'm not alone.
Shannon Celebi
#63. I trust my characters. They know their stories better than I do.
Rayne Hall
#64. I don't assume, because I can write screenplays, that I know how to write a novel. It's a very different world. There's a craft involved in storytelling, and it's a different kind of craft. But yes, someday I will do that. It just might be awhile.
Melissa Rosenberg
#65. Good conductors know when to push and when to lay back. I've known so many great conductors that I'm still doing what I can to learn the craft of this role.
Joshua Bell
#66. Cultivate your craft. Water it daily, pour some tender loving care into it, and watch it grow. Remember that a plant doesn't sprout immediately. Be patient, and know that in life you will reap what you sow.
J.B. McGee
#67. Pursue knowledge as though it is your life-blood, then you will know greatness!
Monique Rockliffe
#68. The only way for me to be an artist is to be honest in my craft. If I veer from that, I'm not giving the investors what they want. Sometimes it's my job as an artist to know what I want to do, even when the fans tell me different.
Talib Kweli
#69. The best ending ever, for a science fiction book - or any novel, now that I think about it - was in Rendezvous With Rama. You know that you're at the end of the book and yet, there is no resolution. Then he hits you with those last six words. Better yet, the power is in the very last word. Wow!
John Gaver
#70. Gay guys know how to craft, and they craft really well. Straight guys, forget it.
Amy Sedaris
#71. What you need to remember is that there's a difference between lecturing about what you know and using it to enrich the story. The latter is good. The former is not.
Stephen King
#72. I don't know if it was a defining moment. I knew it as soon as I could comprehend the possibility of having a career. I knew very young I wanted to be a movie star. As much as I grew into love of the craft. As soon as I could speak I was auditioning and going to classes every day. It was my life.
Columbus Short
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