Top 100 The Craft Quotes
#1. Are you committed to the craft, or will you quit when it gets too hard?
Jeff Goins
#2. The only thing you have then to believe in is your craft.
Frank Langella
#3. At first everyone predicted that it would be impossible to hold these divergent people together, but aside from the skilled men, some of whom belonged to craft unions, comparatively few went back to the mills. And as a whole, the strike was conducted with little violence.
Ray Stannard Baker
#4. Once you have mastered the craft, you can use it for whatever purpose you choose.
Hassan Fathy
#5. Buddhism is a heresy on Hinduism. It was Hinduism that did the dirty work for Buddhism, by the time Buddha came along priest-craft was an ancient tradition in India.
Terence McKenna
#6. I think the time in between albums, as much as it was not anticipated, it was much-needed, and very helpful, very useful. I've done nothing but hone my craft, and get better, and learn, and gather information in the process. So I'm grateful for it in retrospect.
Joe Budden
#7. I always liked the magic of poetry but now I'm just starting to see behind the curtain of even the best poets, how they've used, tried and tested craft to create the illusion. Wonderful feeling of exhilaration to finally be there.
David Knopfler
#8. The idea of love seemed an invasion," she wrote. "I had thoughts to think, a craft to learn, a self to discover. Solitude was a gift. A world was waiting to welcome me if I was willing to enter it alone.
Kate Bolick
#9. Give the reader what they want, just not the way they expect it.
William Goldman
#10. My advice has always been to study the craft of acting if you want to be an actor. There are many great schools that teach acting. NYU being one of them.
Peter Facinelli
#11. Learn the writer's craft, write regularly, grow to love the practice for its own sake-and inspiration will either come on a particular day or it won't, but you'll have prepared the way for it.
Dennis Palumbo
#12. There is a policy response that needs to occur. There is also a technical response that needs to occur. It is the development community that can really craft the solutions and make sure we are safe.
Edward Snowden
#13. People want stardom or fame or whatever - instant gratification as opposed to learning one's craft, which, when I was starting out, was the most important thing: that you are as fully equipped for your job or your art as possible.
Joshua Sasse
#14. A chef is a mixture maybe of artistry and craft. You have to learn the craft really to get there.
Wolfgang Puck
#15. Typographic style is founded not on any one technology of typesetting or printing, but on the primitive yet subtle craft of writing.
Robert Bringhurst
#16. Every reporter who came up in legacy media can tell you about a come-to-Jesus moment when an editor put them up against a wall and tattooed a message deep into their skull: show respect for the fundamentals of the craft, or you would not soon be part of it.
Mary Karr
#17. I want to be a great actor someday, and I've decided there's no use philosophizing; the only way is to work at my craft.
Al Pacino
#18. More riveting to me in the end than the politics of Berlin was the vast social experiment its division had become... it was possible to have freedom and plenty in the West and craft an empty life; it was possible to "have nothing" in the East and create a life of intimacy and dignity and beauty.
Krista Tippett
#19. The discipline of creation, be it to paint, compose, write, is an effort towards wholeness.
Madeleine L'Engle
#20. I think it's a shame when you come across young actors and musicians who haven't had the time to learn their craft. It doesn't matter if it's acting or music; you really have to learn how to do it from the bottom up because unless you have a great work ethic ... fame is a terrible thing to have.
Denis Leary
#21. You're going to a bunch of auditions, and most of the time you're just getting denied, but just staying in there and keeping my head and being determined helped. Growing is what's challenging; you have to constantly practice your craft.
Natalie Martinez
#22. Half the rhymes you write, you're saying that you're better than the other MC. That's how we keep the craft sharp.
Ice-T
#23. The balance when you're catching people up, and the craft of what we do as actors, is to try to make sure that the exposition sounds like thought and dialogue, and a plan or a problem or something that is motivationally induced, rather than just telling the audience information.
Jack Coleman
#24. And later I thought, I can't think how anyone can become a director without learning the craft of cinematography.
Nicolas Roeg
#25. Stories that pander to your every readerly desire and whim are like overly loyal dogs that live for the simple glow of your approval. I'm a cat person. I like a little aloofness in my pets and my writing.
Alden Bell
#26. Magic is the craft of shaping, the craft of the wise, exhilarating, dangerous - the ultimate adventure. The power of magic should not be underestimated. It works, often in ways that are unexpected and difficult to control.
Starhawk
#27. The only thing I knew to do with a man was what I'd learned from my parents: to fight or not fight. I had no idea how to craft a partnership beyond that one basic thing.
Veronica Chambers
#28. My aim is not to exhibit craft, but rather to submerge it, and make it rightfully the handmaiden of beauty, power and emotional content.
Andrew Wyeth
#29. It's hell writing and it's hell not writing. The only tolerable state is having just written.
Robert Hass
#30. The craft of questions, the craft of stories, the craft of the hands - all these are the making of something, and that something is soul. Anytime we feed soul, it guarantees increase.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
#31. It is the writer's job to craft a story so compelling that strangers will pay to hear it.
Seeley James
#32. In terms of drama school, what that will give you that you won't necessarily learn on a film set is the technical ability - ie, projecting your voice and stage craft.
Daniel Radcliffe
#33. 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
#34. I think if you enjoy teaching, if you enjoy talking about your craft, that's probably the best way to do it ... because once a player starts to get it, once he figures it out, he'll never forget it.
Tony Gwynn
#35. 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
#36. the focus one finds in the grammar books is on the wrong forms, on forms detached from the underlying (or overarching) form that must be in place before any technical terms can be meaningful or alive
Stanley Fish
#37. For apprentices everywhere - no one told us that love was the hardest craft to master
Elif Shafak
#38. If I hadn't been a designer, I'd have been a painter. I began as a painter and learned the craft of pottery in order to support myself.
Eva Zeisel
#39. DJ-ing itself is not just about playing songs. The art of DJ-ing is presenting new songs to the crowd that they haven't heard before and creating a party vibe that's different than just listening to anybody's playlist. It's the only way to truly be big and respected in your craft.
TyDi
#40. Delicious days ahead for solitude and writing and, oh yes, the holiday meal with family. Live with my characters until term starts in 2012!
Stella Atrium
#41. Read and write with a sensitive ear. The craft of writing is very important. Practice the craft.
Henry Petroski
#42. What draws us into a story and keeps us there is the firing of our dopamine neurons, signaling that intriguing information is on the way.
Lisa Cron
#43. My kind do not spend their days at craft or art. Our deepest desire is not for the making of a thing, nor for the thing itself. Rather, we thrive on the skills of those who make. We steal that time and that power, and we turn it to our own souls, and that is how we grow.
E.K. Johnston
#44. Slaying dragons, melting witches, and banishing demons is all fun and games until someone loses a sidekick - then it's personal. The bad guy isn't just the "bad guy" anymore, he's the BAD GUY!
Michael J. Sullivan
#45. Enemy submarines are to be called U-Boats. The term submarine is to be reserved for Allied under water vessels. U-Boats are those dastardly villains who sink our ships, while submarines are those gallant and noble craft which sink theirs.
Winston S. Churchill
#46. Assuming normal winter weather, we currently anticipate the coal markets to remain difficult through 2015; while we always strive to operate a full capacity in this environment, it may be necessary to delay our production growth to match the market.
Joe Craft
#47. All novelists must form their personal pacts in some way with the slowness of their craft. There are some who demand of themselves a 'rate of production,' for whom it's a matter of pride to complete, say, a book every year.
Graham Swift
#49. The blazing fire makes flames and brightness out of everything thrown into it.
Marcus Aurelius
#50. 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
#51. The best advice I can give to any aspiring author is to write every single day. Work at the craft of writing. Take it seriously.
Andrea Davis Pinkney
#53. Writers get ideas all day every day. The FedEx guy delivers a package from Sears and the writer is thinking how it could actually be a ticking time bomb.
Dan Alatorre
#55. Good or bad, words have an impact on each of us. As a writer, I can only hope that the effects my words have on others are more often good than bad.
Jessica Lave
#56. Only a writer "with Bennett's craft and brass could manage to praise and insult his readers at the same time.
Harold Holzer
#58. I don't spend that much time in the studio. When I first started doing music, I was in the studio every day just trying to build my portfolio. But now, even though I haven't totally mastered my craft, I'm at a pretty high level.
Fetty Wap
#59. The solution, once revealed, must seem to have been inevitable. At least half of all the mystery novels published violate this law.
(Casual Notes on the Mystery Novel, 1949)
Raymond Chandler
#60. Even in making objects, as soon as you start to get the feeling that some form of craft is coming into place, you realize that everything is wrong. Because craft is really just a fetish. It is wasted energy. It's about the object, some space which has nothing to do with the human.
Jeff Koons
#61. A successful story always offers its audience more than a simple resolution of events. A story offers a dramatic affirmation of human needs that are acted out to resolution and fulfillment. Even when that resolution and fulfillment are dark, the journey can still be vivid, potent and illuminating.
Bill Johnson
#62. I've been working on my craft for a long time. People never want to let go of the whole 'Glitter,' ... I'm like, 'It's eight years later, people. Let's move on.
Mariah Carey
#63. I think that in general
well, at least it's true for me
you tend to put something of yourself into the story as a whole. Not necessarily in any character, you understand. But you've got your own way of looking at the world, and that naturally will affect how you craft a story.
Sam Lake
#64. We often laughed at others in our house, and I picked up the craft of being polite while people were present and laughing later if there was anything to laugh about.
Muriel Spark
#65. When you write your memoir you will understand, perhaps for the first time, the significance of your life through the language, images and emotions you craft from the memory.
Maureen Murdock
#66. I'm a photographer, period. I love photography, the immediacy of it. I like the craft, the idea of saying 'I'm a photographer.'
David LaChapelle
#67. The Christos-image
is most difficult to disentangle
from its art-craft junk-shop
paint-and-plaster medieval jumble
of pain-worship and death-symbol.
Hilda Doolittle
#68. Just for the record, the way to a man's heart isn't through his stomach, but through the best fucking blow job ever. You want a man to be your bitch? Perfect your craft.
Devon Ashley
#69. Watch the dog! His hands actually hesitated, and I think he realized for the first time that PC was there. The dog's presence seemed to stump him. What, he's never seen a dog in a purse before? That or he thought PC was some sort of hairless rat - that happened.
Kalayna Price
#70. We had to depend on other institutions to do research on our behalf. We had to use the information that already existed to craft the best practices to distribute throughout the country. And we had to do all of that in ten months.
DeForest Soaries
#71. Poetry reading is the chamber music of the actor's craft.
Robert Lacey
#72. People assume that a lot of pop artists don't write their songs. That, for me, is super frustrating because I think it detracts from some of the art and some of the craft of what we do. I'm at the helm of it, and I think that is what people don't see.
Ricki-Lee Coulter
#73. Prime Minister, I see you've already mastered the essential craft of the European politician, namely, the ability to say one thing in this chamber and a very different thing to your home electorate.
Daniel Hannan
#74. Acting is something I love to do. I love to perform and I love the art, the craft of it.
Jill Bennett
#75. 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
#76. As you write your novel, you gradually start thinking like some of your characters in it. And at times the writer may lose himself completely in some character.
Avijeet Das
#77. You know what I did after I wrote my first novel? I shut up and wrote twenty-three more."
("The Castle")
Michael Connelly
#78. Great writers zealously learn the craft of their profession so they can release the power and the depth of their imagination and experience.
Leonard Bishop
#79. Hip hop has always been, for us, for artists who are pure to the craft - any place overseas, whether it's Australia, any place in Asia, Germany, Africa, it becomes something where you can still go and work. Hip hop is an import culture. We're spoiled by it here. It's homegrown.
Talib Kweli
#80. I've always written songs the same way. You learn different tricks - you learn craft, you learn structure, all that - as you go.
Taylor Swift
#81. 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
#82. Well, the odds must be against anybody being able to fly around the world in a balloon on the first attempt. All of us who are attempting to go around the world in balloons are effectively flying in experimental craft because these craft cannot be tested.
Richard Branson
#83. In short, avoiding the scourge of unemployment may have less to do with chasing after growth and more to do with building an economy of care, craft and culture. And in doing so, restoring the value of decent work to its rightful place at the heart of society.
Tim Jackson
#84. In comedy you feel you need to go back to the theatre every now and again, you feel you need to go back to an audience every now and again to see if you're still getting your craft right, making people laugh at the moments you think they should and that sort of thing.
Mathew Baynton
#85. In college, you had to worry about that math class or this exam that's coming up on Tuesday, but not in the professionals. You eat, sleep, and do everything related to your craft - and your craft is football. You can be at it from sunup to sundown.
Cam Newton
#86. However great a man's natural talent may be, the act of writing cannot be learned all at once.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
#87. In the end, Dan Rather's legend skewered him, CBS and the craft of journalism.
Tina Brown
#88. Do theater. Because you'll develop a craft that you'll always have. It'll give you a chance to really learn how to act and you won't go into the world with a few measly tricks that will only carry you so far.
Mark Ruffalo
#89. Just as food is a craft, great service is, too. It can take years to perfect the technical aspects of clearing a plate, carving tableside, or pouring wine, and a lifetime to master the emotional elements of service.
Daniel Humm
#90. A lot of people come to quote-unquote Hollywood thinking that all they just have to be different or do something outlandish or have a huge personality to become a star. But I think that if you just focus on the craft, you'll have a better chance at longevity.
Morris Chestnut
#91. The truth is that a nineteenth-century warehouse exhibits greater craft in its construction than all but the most expensive modern buildings.
Witold Rybczynski
#92. In Hong Kong, particularly, we craft this art for decades. The action choreographer actually is the action director. He takes over and he choreographs with - by himself or with his team, and place the camera where he feels cinematic effect to bring out that choreography.
Donnie Yen
#93. The craft of the merchant is this bringing a thing where it abounds to where it is costly.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
#94. The biggest challenge for any craft person or artist is to accept the constraints of their medium and make something beautiful despite them. That's kind of fun, actually.
Ayelet Waldman
#95. The competition, the naysayers, the owners who talk too much. The people who don't think a 36-year-old can do what I do. I take a lot of pride in my craft, I work really hard at my craft everyday, and I'm a true professional.
Kevin Garnett
#96. What compels me to write now is the same as all those years ago. It is the love of writing and storytelling, driven by a desire to escape.
Fennel Hudson
#97. I encourage my students to be honest in their assessment of both the published work we read and the work of their classmates. I think there's always the occasion for discussing elements of craft, whether the student's poem is terrible or quite wonderful.
Cate Marvin
#98. An artist's job is to inspire, from the Latin inspirare: to breathe into. The primary function of art is to inspire new thought shaped by emotions using the creative mediums we master - be it painting, music, design, craft, or photography.
Anonymous
#99. 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
#100. The only craft and technique you have legitimate access to is the craft and technique you forgot, that has dissolved itself into the unconscious ... Because you have learned it so well you have forgotten it.
Robert Olen Butler
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