“An artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn't know why they choose him and he's usually too busy to wonder why.”

—  William Faulkner

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "An artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn't know why they choose him and he's usually too busy to wonder why." by William Faulkner?
William Faulkner photo
William Faulkner214
American writer 1897–1962

Related quotes

William Faulkner photo

“An artist is a creature driven by demons. He doesn’t
know why they choose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder
why. He is completely amoral in that he will rob, borrow, beg, or
steal from anybody and everybody to get the work done.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Patrick Rothfuss photo

“Wilem snorted."That doesn't sound suspicious at all," he said. "And you wonder why people talk about you."

"I don't wonder why they talk," I said "I wonder what they say.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

Source: The Wise Man's Fear

Percy Bysshe Shelley photo

“If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him?
If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future?
If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers?
If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him?
If he is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has filled with weaknesses?
If grace does everything for them, what reason would he have for recompensing them?
If he is all-powerful, how offend him, how resist him?
If he is reasonable, how can he be angry at the blind, to whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable?
If he is immovable, by what right do we pretend to make him change his decrees?
If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him?
If he has spoken, why is the universe not convinced?
If the knowledge of a God is the most necessary, why is it not the most evident and the clearest?”

Percy Bysshe Shelley book The Necessity of Atheism

The Necessity of Atheism (1811)

Graham Greene photo

“I couldn't help wondering, is my husband so unattractive that no woman has ever wanted him? Except me, of course. I must have wanted him, in a way, once, but I've forgotten why, and I was too young to know what I was choosing.”

Graham Greene book The End of the Affair

Source: The End of the Affair

Nicholas Sparks photo

“Dean: If there is a greater power, why is it he can't get you a new sweater?
Jamie: Because, he's too busy looking for your brain.”

Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember

Source: A Walk to Remember

Jack Benny photo

“Clyde: I wondered why he had his hand on his hip when I shot him.”

Jack Benny (1894–1974) comedian, vaudeville performer, and radio, television, and film actor

The Jack Benny Program (Radio: 1932-1955), The Jack Benny Program (Television: 1950-1965)

Huey Long photo

“I wonder why he shot me.”

Huey Long (1893–1935) American politician, Governor of Louisiana, and United States Senator

Said on September 8, 1935 on his way to the hospital following being shot outside the State Capitol; quoted in Harry T. Williams, Huey Long (Vingtage Books/Random House, 1969), p. 866.

William Golding photo

“The man who tells the tale if he has a tale worth telling will know exactly what he is about and this business of the artist as a sort of starry-eyed inspired creature, dancing along, with his feet two or three feet above the surface of the earth, not really knowing what sort of prints he's leaving behind him, is nothing like the truth.”

William Golding (1911–1993) British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate

Interview with Frank Kermode, BBC Third Programme (28 April 1959)

Frances Farmer photo

“I wondered a little why God was such a useless thing. It seemed a waste of time to have him. After that he became less and less, until he was… nothingness.”

Frances Farmer (1913–1970) American actress

God Dies (1931)

Related topics