Author Niall Williams in his novel of rural Ireland, "This Is Happiness" describes the essence of art:

"It seems to me the quality that makes any book, music, painting worthwhile is life, just that. Books, music, painting are not life, can never be as full, rich, complex, surprising or beautiful, but the best of them can catch an echo of that, can turn you back to look out the window, go out the door aware that you’ve been enriched, that you have been in the company of something above that has caused you to realize once again how astonishing life is, and you leave the book, gallery or concert hall with that illumination, which feels I’m going to say holy, by which I mean human raptness."

The world changes according to the way people see it,

and if you alter, even by a millimeter,

the way people look at reality,

then you can change it.

                                                                    – James Baldwin

"I heard someone from the music business saying they are no longer looking for talent, they want people with a certain look and a willingness to cooperate.

I thought, that's interesting, because I believe a total unwillingness to cooperate is what is necessary to be an artist… not for perverse reasons, but to protect your vision."

                                                                                                                                        – Joni Mitchell

“ It is incumbent upon every human being to invest himself in his landscape.

It is significant and a means of identifying himself.”

                                                                                                – N. Scott Momaday

"I could not live in any of the worlds offered to me…the world of my parents, the world of war, the world of politics. I had to create a world of my own, like a climate, a country, an atmosphere in which I could breathe, reign, and recreate myself… That, I believe, is the reason for every work of art. The artist is the only one who knows that the world is a subjective creation, that there is a choice to be made, a selection of elements. It is a materialization, an incarnation of his inner world."

                                                                                                                                        – Anais Nin

Robert Frost's observation on the genesis of a poem is no doubt true for most creative endeavors, including photography:

"A poem [photograph] begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or a love sickness. It is a reaching-out toward expression; an effort to find fulfillment. A complete poem is one where an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words [images]."

"I'm trying to find these rare moments where you feel completely illuminated…when you read a great poem, you instantly know. You instantly feel this spark of illumination. You are almost stepping outside of yourself and you see something sublime."

                                                                                                                                    – Werner Herzog

The creative process is a process of surrender, not control.

                                                                    – Bruce Lee

Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development,

invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears.
                                                                                – Edgar Allen Poe

I feel that art has something to do with the achievement of stillness in the midst of chaos.

A stillness which characterizes prayer, too, and the eye of the storm.

I think that art has something to do with an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction.

                                                                                                         – Saul Bellow