“Amateurs look for inspiration; the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

— Chuck Close

Last update Aug. 15, 2021. History

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Chuck Close 2

American artist 1940–2021

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“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“[Do you have a motto or creed that as an artist you live by? ] Inspiration is for amateurs — the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will — through work — bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great "art idea". And the belief that process, in a sense, is liberating and that you don't have to reinvent the wheel every day. Today, you know what you'll do, you could be doing what you were doing yesterday, and tomorrow you are gonna do what you did today, and at least for a certain period of time you can just work. If you hang in there, you will get somewhere.”

Chuck Close (1940–2021) American artist

Inside the Painter's Studio, Joe Fig, Princeton Architectural Press, 2009, p. 42

“Amateurs think that if they were inspired all the time, they could be professionals. Professional know that if they relied on inspiration, they'd be amateurs”

Philip Pullman (1946) English author

From the Q&A section (found July 2010) http://www.philip-pullman.com/q_a.asp?offset=60
Pullman's website
Context: If you're going to make a living at this business - more importantly, if you're going to write anything that will last - you have to realise that a lot of the time, you're going to be writing without inspiration. The trick is to write just as well without it as with. Of course, you write less readily and fluently without it; but the interesting thing is to look at the private journals and letters of great writers and see how much of the time they just had to do without inspiration. Conrad, for example, groaned at the desperate emptiness of the pages he faced; and yet he managed to cover them. Amateurs think that if they were inspired all the time, they could be professionals. Professional know that if they relied on inspiration, they'd be amateurs.

“This script, it seems to me, is the work of professionals who yearned to be as charming as inspired amateurs can sometimes be.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

"Preface"
Between Time and Timbuktu (1972)

“It is particularly necessary to arouse in all who participate in practical work, or are preparing to take up that work, discontent with the amateurism prevailing among us and an unshakable determination to rid ourselves of it.”

Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution

What is to be Done? (1902)

“We get up and go to work, we get up and go to church, and we get up and go to war when necessary.”

Jeff Foxworthy (1958) American stand-up comedian

2007 CMT Awards
Context: Country music is about new love and it's about old love. It's about gettin' drunk and gettin' sober. It's about leavin' and it's about comin' home. It's real music sung by real people for real people, the people that make up the backbone of this country. You can call us rednecks if you want. We're not offended, 'cause we know what we're all about. We get up and go to work, we get up and go to church, and we get up and go to war when necessary.

“Every morning I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work.”

Robert Orben (1928) American magician and writer

Henry J. Waters III (March 19, 2007) "The Tribune's View: Shield law - Stand up, Mr. Gibbons", Columbia Daily Tribune.
Attributed
Variant: Every morning I get up and look throught the Forbes list of the richest people of America. If I am not there, I go to work.