The Saunterer

Alfred Stieglitz on creating

    Creators should be absolutely demanding of themselves; Alfred Stieglitz knew it and was: 

    I have finally made a print from one of the negatives made 3 years ago. — It is a wonder. I guess I’ve made 50 prints during the 3 years always trying and trying over again — sometimes approaching — sometimes “fooling” myself into the belief that I had something satisfactory, always knowing there was still much leeway towards what I really wanted.

    (Quoted from page 245 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg. Xlibris, 2001.)
    For a brief biography of Alfred Stieglitz, click here. For images of or relating Alfred Stieglitz, click here.

Anton Chekhov on how a vocation gives an avocation meaning

    Nearly all writers would agree with Anton Chekhov:

    Medicine is my lawful wedded wife, and literature my mistress. When one gets on my nerves, I spend the night with the other. This may be somewhat disorganized, but then again it’s not as boring, and anyway, neither one loses anything by my duplicity. If I didn’t have medicine, I’d never devote my spare time and thoughts to literature.

    (Quoted from page 201 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg. Xlibris, 2001.)
    For a brief biography of Anton Chekhov, click here. For images of or relating to Anton Chekhov, click here.

Katherine Mansfield’s credo

    Young, starting out, looking ahead, she thought of what she wanted her life to be:

    Then I want to work. At what? I want so to live that I work with my hands and my feeling and my brain. I want a garden, a small house, grass, animals, books, pictures, music. And out of this, the expression of this, I want to be writing. . . . But warm, eager, living life — to be rooted in life — to learn, to desire to know, to feel, to think, to act. That is what I want. And nothing less. That is what I must try for.

    (Quoted from page 181 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg. Xlibris, 2001.)
    For a brief biography of Katherine Mansfield, click here. For images of or relating Katherine Mansfield, click here.

Anna Varga on young Russians saying “No thanks” to marriage

    More and more young Russians are delaying or forgoing marriage, and according to Anna Varga it is for this good reason:

    People have a clear understanding of how they would like to live and how they could live, and that often isn’t consistent with the idea of marriage. Career-building often implies a certain way of life that is incompatible with a family and children.

    (Quoted from “Young Russians Are Delaying Tying the Knot, by Darya Lyubinskaya. Page 2 of Russia Beyond The Headlines, Wednesday, December 17, 2014.)
    Anna Varga is the director of a master’s program in Systemic Family Psychotherapy at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow.

Martha Graham on the function of American dance

    You might say much the same for all the arts:

    We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life.

    (Quoted from page 246 of Nietzsche’s Dancers, by Kimerer L. LaMothe. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.)
    For a brief biography of Martha Graham, click here. For images of or relating to Martha Graham, click here.
    For a brief work biography of Kimerer L. LaMothe, click here. For images of or relating to Kimerer L. LaMothe, click here.

Cole Porter on solving global warming

    Faced with solving the global warming it caused, society instead turns to all kinds of partying. Cole Porter paints our irresponsible and fatal defect:

Have you heard? It's in the stars
Next July we collide with Mars.
Well, did you evah?
What a swell party this is!

    (From Cole Porter’s “DuBarry Was a Lady.” Quoted from page 265 of The Complete Lyrics of Cole Porter, edited by Robert Kimball. Da Capo Press.)
    For a brief biography of Cole Porter, click here. For images of or relating to Cole Porter, click here.
    For a brief biography of Robert Kimball, click here. For images of or relating to Robert Kimball, click here.

Wallace Stevens on beauty

    Beauty is what? Wallace Stevens says what:

    To say that stars were made to guide navigators etc. seems like stretching a point; but the real use of their beauty (which is not their excuse) is that it is a service, a food. Beauty is strength.

    (Quoted from page 297 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg. Xlibris, 2001.)
    For a brief biography of Wallace Stevens, click here. For images of or relating to Wallace Stevens, click here.

Marie-Henri Beyle on work

    Marie-Henri Beyle’s credo:

    Let us put the present to good use, for our minutes are numbered. The hour I’ve spent fretting has nonetheless brought me that much nearer death. Let us work, for work is the father of pleasure, but let us never fret. Let us reflect sanely before deciding on our course; once our decision is taken we ought never to change our minds. With a steadfast heart, anything can be attained. Give us talent; the day will come when I’ll regret the time I’ve wasted.

    (Quoted from page 200 of The Life of the Creative Spirit, by H. Charles Romesburg. Xlibris, 2001.)
    For a brief biography of Marie-Henri Beyle, click here. For images of or relating to Marie-Henri Beyle, click here.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky on the creative artist’s two lives

As he tells it,

    Those are mistaken who think that the creative artist can express his feelings through his artistic medium while he is experiencing them. Sad as well as joyous feelings are always expressed, as it were, in retrospect. Without any particular reason for joy, I can immerse myself into a gay creation; on the other hand, in happy circumstances I can execute a piece full of the gloomiest and most despondent feelings. In short, the artist leads two lives; that of the ordinary human being and that of the artist; and those two lives do not always run parallel.

    (Quoted from page 106 of The Golden Age of Conductors, by John W. Knight. Meredith Music, 2010)
    For a brief biography of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, click here. For images of or relating to Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, click here.
    For information about John W. Knight and his work, click here. For images of or relating to John W. Knight, click here.

Vladimir Nabokov on dreaming

    What goes on in dreams, where the laws of physics and probability are suspended, is far more interesting than what goes on in waking life. To demonstrate, here is a dreamt scene of professor Vladimir Nabokov’s on a night in 1964, from notes he made in the morning:

    Clear end of one: am correcting, with other people, students’ examination papers. Of the three I get, the first read proves to be a little masterpiece. The name of the student is Mostel (not known in waking life). I am wondering what to give him, an A or an A+. Cannot find my pencil and am, moreover, upset by a sordid and complicated love affair with another’s wife (unknown in waking life and not shown in dream). A colleague (I have never in my life corrected papers collectively!) urges me to finish my batch. I still can’t find an implement to write with and furthermore am badgered and hampered in my movements by the betrayed husband, a very small man who works with his arms as he pours out a torrent of complaints. In exasperation I take him and send him flying and spinning into a revolving door where he continues to twist at some distance from the ground, in a horizontal position, before falling. Awkward suspense: is he dead? No, he picks himself up and staggers away. We return to the exam. papers.

    (Quoted from “Textures of time,” page 15 of the Times Literary Supplement, October 31, 2014.)
    For a brief biography of Vladimir Nabokov, click here. For images of or relating to Vladimir Nabokov, click here.