Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness – I wouldn’t know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness.
– Aaron Copland (1900 – 1990)
We should be taught not to wait for inspiration to start a thing. Action always generates inspiration. Inspiration seldom generates action.
– Frank Tibolt
You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.
– Jack London (1876 – 1916)
Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time… The wait is simply too long.
– Leonard Bernstein (1918 – 1990)
I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled [poets] to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.
– Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC), In “Apology,” sct. 21, by Plato.
Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration.
– Thomas A. Edison (1847 – 1931), Harper’s Monthly, 1932
