“ 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

From a recent article in the NY TIMES by physicist Carlo Rovelli:

"I think that this is also how the best art works. Science and art are both concerned with the continual reorganization of our conceptual space, of what we call meaning. What happens when we react to a work of art is not happening in the art object itself, of course — still less in some unphysical “world of the spirit.” It lies in the complexity of our brain, in the kaleidoscopic network of analogical relationships with which our neurons weave what we call meaning.
We are involved, engaged — for this takes us out of our habitual sleepwalking, reconnecting us with the joy of seeing something anew in the world."

"I swear to you, there are divine things more beautiful than words can tell."

                                                                                                                                – Walt Whitman

I sense the world might be more dreamlike, metaphorical, and poetic than we currently believe… I wouldn't be surprised if poetry…in the sense of a world filled with metaphor, rhyme, and recurring patterns, shapes and designs…is how the world works. The world isn't logical, it's a song.

                                                                                                            – David Byrne