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William Somerset Maugham

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The artist produces for the liberation of his soul. It is his nature to create as it is the nature of water to run down the hill.
--
p. 185

 
William Somerset Maugham

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One is born an artist. The artist is a man endowed with a special nature, with a particular feeling for seeing form and color spontaneously, as a whole, in perfect harmony. If one lacks that feeling, one is not an artist and will never become an artist; and it is a waste of time to entertain the possibility. This craft is acquired through study, observation, and practice; it can improve by ceaseless work. But the instinct for art is innate. First, one has to love nature with all one's heart and soul, and be able to study and admire it for hours on end. Everything is in nature. A plant, a leaf, a blade of grass should be the subjects of infinite and fruitful meditations; for the artist, a cloud floating in the sky has form, and the form affords him joy, helps him think.

 
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Art is a substitute for violence. The same impulses that drive persons to violence — the hunger for meaning, the need for ecstasy, the impulse to risk all — drive the artist to create. He is by nature our archrebel. ... the essence of the rebellion is in the new way of seeing nature and life.

 
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Nature can afford to be prodigal in everything, the artist must be frugal down to the last detail.
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