57 Quotes by Stephen Nachmanovitch

Play is the taproot from which original art springs. It is the raw stuff that the artist channels with all his learning and technique.

But somehow, even when we are grown up and “adjusted,” everything we do and are – our handwriting, the vibrato of our voice, the way we handle the bow or breathe into the instrument, our way of using language, the look in our eyes, the pattern of whorling fingerprints on our hand – all these things are symptomatic of our original nature.

Writing, playing, composing, painting, reading, listening, looking-all require that we submit to being swept away by Eros, to a transformation of self of the kind that happens when we fall in love.

Play enables us to rearrange our capacities and our very identity so that they can be used in unforeseen ways.

If we split practice from the real thing, neither one of them will be very real.

Every attempt we make is imperfect; yet each one of those imperfect attempts is an occasion for a delight unlike anything else on earth.

Play, intrinsically rewarding, doesn’t cost anything; as soon as you put a price on it, it becomes, to some extent, not play.

If a creative person has a sense of humor, a sense of style and a certain amount of stubbornness, he finds a way to do what he needs to in spite of the obstacles.

Faithfulness to the moment and to the present circumstance entails continuous surrender.