Quotes about draw
page 11

Washington Irving photo
Karen Blixen photo
Jonas Salk photo
Joseph Goebbels photo

“The end of the year! I draw the balance. Inquiry of conscience and request to the Spirit for progress and maturity.
I grew stronger inside of me and I strive for a clearer knowledge and stronger faith.”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

Jahresende! Ich mache Bilanz. Gewissensschau und Bitte an den Geist um Fortschritt und Reife.
Ich bin stärker im Innern geworden und strebe zu klarerer Erkenntnis und festerem Glauben.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo

“My thoughts are crowded with death
and it draws so oddly on the sexual
that I am confused
confused to be attracted
by, in effect, my own annihilation.”

Thom Gunn (1929–2004) English poet

"In Time Of Plague," in The Man With Night Sweats (1992)
Other

John Ruysbroeck photo
Frank Wilczek photo

“My first serious programming work was done in the very early 1960s, in Assembler languages on IBM and Honeywell machines. Although I was a careful designer — drawing meticulous flowcharts before coding — and a conscientious tester, I realised that program design was hard and the results likely to be erroneous. Into the Honeywell programs, which formed a little system for an extremely complex payroll, I wrote some assertions, with run-time tests that halted program execution during production runs. Time constraints didn't allow restarting a run from the beginning of the tape. So for the first few weeks I had the frightening task on several payroll runs of repairing an erroneous program at the operator’s keyboard ¾ correcting an error in the suspended program text, adjusting the local state of the program, and sometimes modifying the current and previous tape records before resuming execution. On the Honeywell 400, all this could be done directly from the console typewriter. After several weeks without halts, there seemed to be no more errors. Before leaving the organisation, I replaced the run-time halts by brief diagnostic messages: not because I was sure all the errors had been found, but simply because there would be no-one to handle a halt if one occurred. An uncorrected error might be repaired by clerical adjustments; a halt in a production run would certainly be disastrous.”

Michael A. Jackson (1936) British computer scientist

Michael A. Jackson (2000), "The Origins of JSP and JSD: a Personal Recollection", in: IEEE Annals of Software Engineering, Volume 22 Number 2, pages 61-63, 66, April-June 2000.

Alexandra Kollontai photo
Rembrandt van Rijn photo

“Rembrandt's comments on his drawing of 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt', as remembered by his former pupil Samuel van Hoogstraten c. 1643 (translation from the original Dutch: Anne Porcelijn)”

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669) Dutch 17th century painter and etcher

Dresden museum, Kupferstichkabinett - author: Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn - Object: 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt', Inventory number: C 1443 [document/remdoc/e4525]
1640 - 1670

Johannes Tauler photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Corneliu Zelea Codreanu photo
Wilhelm Liebknecht photo
Poul Anderson photo
Paul Klee photo

“Towards the end of the month I prepared engravings; first, invented appropriate drawings. Not that I want to become a specialist now. But painting with its failures cries out for the relief of minor successes. Nowadays I am a very tired painter, but my skill as a draftsman holds [me] up.”

Paul Klee (1879–1940) German Swiss painter

Quote (1904), # 512, in The Diaries of Paul Klee, translation: Pierre B. Schneider, R. Y. Zachary and Max Knight; publisher, University of California Press, 1964
1903 - 1910

Clinton Edgar Woods photo
Robert Crumb photo
Enoch Powell photo
Anthony Burgess photo
John Ruysbroeck photo
David Lee Roth photo
Annie Dillard photo
Josh Billings photo
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi photo
Bob Dylan photo

“In the dime stores and bus stations,
People talk of situations,
Read books repeat quotations,
Draw conclusions on the wall.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Love Minus Zero/No Limit

Hendrik Werkman photo

“I never have to search for subjects, they come to offer themselves - the right form is not always there immediately and that is why it is good to draw those small sketches beforehand. Otherwise it will become too wild, the work demands great calmness and if I am bound to time - for example when Greet [his wife] thinks that I should come home earlier - [then] it starts thundering, because peace has disappeared.”

Hendrik Werkman (1882–1945) Dutch artist

version in original Dutch (origineel citaat van Hendrik Werkman, in het Nederlands): Onderwerpen behoef ik nooit te zoeken die komen zichzelf aanbieden, de goede vorm niet altijd dadelijk en daarom is het goed vooraf die kleine schetsjes te maken. Anders wordt het te wild, het werk eischt een groote kalmte en als ik aan tijd gebonden ben, bijv. als Greet [zijn vrouw] vindt dat ik vroeger thuis moet komen [dan] is het donderen want de rust is zoek.
Quote in a letter to nl:Paul Guermonprez, 15 July 1942; as cited in H. N. Werkman - Leven & Werk - 1882-1945, ed. A. de Vries, J. van der Spek, D. Sijens, M. Jansen; WBooks, Groninger Museum / Stichting Werkman, 2015 (transl: Fons Heijnsbroek), p. 176
1940's

Guity Novin photo
Sergey Lavrov photo
Maynard James Keenan photo

“The process that we go through in recording with Tool is very organic, but at the same time it is very thought out. There is a very left-brain process of dissecting what we're doing and drawing from source material; it's very research oriented and esoteric.”

Maynard James Keenan (1964) musician

Neil Strauss (March 29, 2000) "A brain comes full circle: Rock musician Maynard James Keenan, of the bands Tool and A Perfect Circle", The New York Times, p. B3.

Edith Stein photo

“For a wholesome collaboration of the sexes in professional life will be possible only if both achieve a calm and objective awareness of their nature and draw practical conclusions from it.”

Edith Stein (1891–1942) Jewish-German nun, theologian and philosopher

Essays on Woman (1996), The Ethos of Woman's Professions (1930)

Anton Mauve photo

“.. coloring is also drawing.”

Anton Mauve (1838–1888) Dutch painter (1838–1888)

Quote of Mauve; as cited by Vincent van Gogh in his letter to brother Theo http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let175/letter.html, from Etten, c. 12-15 Oct. 1881]
1880's

James Thurber photo

“A drawing is always dragged down to the level of its caption.”

James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright

The New Yorker (2 August 1930)
From other writings

Geert Wilders photo

“We must never give a free hand to those who want to subjugate us, draw this line so that New York will never become New Mecca.”

Geert Wilders (1963) Dutch politician

"Demonstrations over Islamic centre held in New York" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11274010, BBC, 11 September 2010.
2010s

Ellsworth Kelly photo
Jorge Luis Borges photo

“A man sets out to draw the world. As the years go by, he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and individuals. A short time before he dies, he discovers that the patient labyrinth of lines traces the lineaments of his own face.”

Un hombre se propone la tarea de dibujar el mundo. A lo largo de los años puebla un espacio con imágenes de provincias, de reinos, de montañas, de bahías, de naves, de islas, de peces, de habitaciones, de instrumentos, de astros, de caballos y de personas. Poco antes de morir, descubre que ese paciente laberinto de líneas traza la imagen de su cara.
Epilogue
Variant translation: A man sets himself the task of portraying the world. Through the years he peoples a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, islands, fishes, rooms, instruments, stars, horses, and people. Shortly before his death, he discovers that that patient labyrinth of lines traces the image of his face.
Dreamtigers (1960)

Jackson Pollock photo

“I've had a period of drawing on canvas in black – with some of my early images coming thru -, think the non-objectivists will find them disturbing – and the kids who think it simple to splash a 'Pollock' out.”

Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) American artist

Quote from Pollock's letter to Alfonso A. Ossorio and Edward Dragon (1951); as quoted in Abstract Expressionism (1990) by David Anfam, p. 175
1950's

Albert Marquet photo

“I do not know how to write or speak but only to paint and draw. Look at what I have done. Whether I have succeeded in explaining myself or not, in any case, if you do not understand my work, through your fault or mine, I can do no more.”

Albert Marquet (1875–1947) French artist

Marcelle Marquet, Marquet Fernand Hazan Editions, Paris 1955, p. 6; as quoted in 'Appendix – Marquet Speaks on his Art', in "Albert Marquet and the Fauve movement, 1898-1908", Norris Judd, published 1976, - translation Norris Judd - Thesis (A.B.)--Sweet Briar College, p. 116

Robert Murray M'Cheyne photo
Brion Gysin photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Agatha Christie photo
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot photo
Max Pechstein photo

“It was and still is fundamental: to begin the work with the same tools with which it will be ended, without making a preliminary drawing. on the wood, stone, or metal. Sketches and drawings done in advance clarify the intention, and with it ready in the head, the requisite tool realizes the idea.”

Max Pechstein (1881–1955) German artist

Buchheim, Künstlergemeinschaft Brücke, p. 304; as quoted in 'The Revival of Printmaking in Germany', I. K. Rigby; in German Expressionist Prints and Drawings - Essays Vol 1.; published by Museum Associates, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California & Prestel-Verlag, Germany, 1986, p. 54

Peter Paul Rubens photo
John Lancaster Spalding photo

“Let not what thou canst not prevent, though it be the ruin of thy home or country, draw thee from thy proper work.”

John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) Catholic bishop

Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 98

Francis Crick photo
Edgar Degas photo

“Drawing is not the same as form; it is a way of seeing form.”

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French artist

Le dessin n'est pas la forme, il est la manière de voir la forme.
"Drawing Is Not the Same As Form..." (p. 82)
posthumous quotes, Degas Dance Drawing' (1935)

Vincent Van Gogh photo

“To stroll on wharves, and in alleys and in streets and in the houses, waiting-rooms, even saloons, that is not a pleasant pastime unless for an artist. As such, one would rather be in the dirtiest place where there is something to draw, than at a tea party with charming ladies. Unless one wants to draw ladies, then a tea party is all right even for an artist.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

quote in his letter to brother Theo, from The Hague, The Netherlands in Spring 1882; as quoted in Vincent van Gogh, edited by Alfred H. Barr; Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1935 https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_1996_300061887.pdf, p. 34 (letter 190)
1880s, 1882

Ray Bradbury photo

“I knew I was going into one of the arts: I was drawing, acting, and writing.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

The Paris Review interview (2010)

Hendrik Werkman photo

“I will keep for you the small drawings that I usually make beforehand. They don't have any artistic value. I just make them to have some grip for the composition of the print..”

Hendrik Werkman (1882–1945) Dutch artist

version in original Dutch (origineel citaat van Hendrik Werkman, in het Nederlands): De kleine teekeningen die ik vooraf meestal maak, zal ik voor je reserveren. Artistieke waarde hebben ze niet, ik maak ze alleen om eenig houvast te hebben voor de opbouw van de druk..
In a letter (nr. 356) to August Henkels, 11 July 1941; as cited in H. N. Werkman - Leven & Werk - 1882-1945, ed. A. de Vries, J. van der Spek, D. Sijens, M. Jansen; WBooks, Groninger Museum / Stichting Werkman, 2015 (transl: Fons Heijnsbroek), p. 177
In February 1941 it was his friend and leader of the nl:De Blauwe Schuit (uitgeverij) August Henkels who borrowed Werkman the book of Martin Buber: 'Legends of the Baal Shem'. Werkman promised his friend the preliminary drawings he would make for creating the series of 20 prints of the 'Chassidic Legends' https://www.kb.nl/de-chassidische-legenden
1940's

Thomas Fuller photo
Charles M. Schulz photo

“The only thing I really ever wanted to be was a cartoonist. That's my life. Drawing.”

Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) American cartoonist

Address to the Sonoma County Press Club as quoted in the Sonoma County Press Democrat (13 February 2000)

Alice A. Bailey photo
Harry Schwarz photo

“Whenever I draw up economic policy I look at it from the point of view of the person who has nothing; I look at it from the point of view of my farther who tried to get a job but could not.”

Harry Schwarz (1924–2010) South African activist

Sunday Times (18 November 1990).
Parliament (1974-1991)
Source: http://www.samedia.uovs.ac.za/cgi-bin/getpdf?id=2056613

Noam Chomsky photo
Plutarch photo
Pope Benedict XVI photo

“Truth draws strength from itself and not from the number of votes in its favour.”

Pope Benedict XVI (1927) 265th Pope of the Catholic Church

In Address to the International Diplomats Address to the International Diplomats http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2006/march/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20060318_intern-organizations_en.html (18 March 2006)
2006

Thomas Gainsborough photo
Horace Bushnell photo
Oliver Goldsmith photo

“A flattering painter, who made it his care
To draw men as they ought to be, not as they are.”

Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774) Irish physician and writer

Source: Retaliation (1774), Line 63.

Judea Pearl photo
Jean-Claude Juncker photo

“I am astonished at those who are afraid of the people: one can always explain that what is in the interest of Europe is in the interests of our countries."
"Britain is different. Of course there will be transfers of sovereignty. But would I be intelligent to draw the attention of public opinion to this fact?"
"There is a single legal personality for the EU, the primacy of European law, a new architecture for foreign and security policy, there is an enormous extension in the fields of the EU's powers, there is Charter of Fundamental Rights.”

Jean-Claude Juncker (1954) Luxembourgian politician

On the Lisbon Treaty, Le Soir L'invité du lundi Jean-Claude Juncker : « Succès objectif, déception atmosphérique », 2 July 2007, Le Soir, 2 July 2007, page 18 Bruno Waterfield, Brendan Carlin: 'Don't tell British about the EU treaty' http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/03/weu103.xml, Telegraph, 3 July 2007.
2007

Antonio Salieri photo
Barry Eichengreen photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“A great man quotes bravely, and will not draw on his invention when his memory serves him with a word just as good.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Quotation and Originality

Joaquin Miller photo
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner photo

“They [his 'Street Scene' paintings and drawings, he made in Berlin] originated in the years 1911-14, in one of the loneliest times of my life, during which an agonizing restlessness drove me out onto the streets day and night, which were filled with people and cars.”

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) German painter, sculptor, engraver and printmaker

Quote from Kirchner's Notebook entry 'Meine Strasenbilder', 24 Augustus 1919; as quoted in Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Meisterwerke der Druckgraphik, M. M. Moeller, Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart 1990 p. 184
1916 - 1919

Amit Chaudhuri photo

“Tagore claims that the first time he experienced the thrill of poetry was when he encountered the children’s rhyme ‘Jal pare/pata nare’ (‘Rain falls / The leaf trembles') in Iswarchandra Vidyasagar’s Bengali primer Barna Parichay (Introducing the Alphabet). There are at least two revealing things about this citation. The first is that, as Bengali scholars have remarked, Tagore’s memory, and predilection, lead him to misquote and rewrite the lines. The actual rhyme is in sadhu bhasha, or ‘high’ Bengali: ‘Jal paritechhe / pata naritechhe’ (‘Rain falleth / the leaf trembleth’). This is precisely the sort of diction that Tagore chose for the English Gitanjali, which, with its thees and thous, has so tried our patience. Yet, as a Bengali poet, Tagore’s instinct was to simplify, and to draw language closer to speech. The other reason the lines of the rhyme are noteworthy, especially with regard to Tagore, is – despite their deceptively logical progression – their non-consecutive character. ‘Rain falls’ and ‘the leaf trembles’ are two independent, stand-alone observations: they don’t necessarily have to follow each other. It’s a feature of poetry commented upon by William Empson in Some Versions of Pastoral: that it’s a genre that can get away with seamlessly joining two lines which are linked, otherwise, tenuously.”

Amit Chaudhuri (1962) contemporary Indian-English novelist

On Tagore: Reading the Poet Today (2012)

Vincent Van Gogh photo
Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“4833. The wise Man draws more Advantage from his Enemies, than a Fool from his Friends.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1749) : The wise Man draws more Advantage from his Enemies, than the Fool from his Friends.
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

Robert Moses photo
George Grosz photo

“A composition should be simple and clear. That is why the drawings of children and primitives are so strong.”

George Grosz (1893–1959) German artist

In the 1930's Grosz encouraged as art-teacher his students at the Art Students League in New York to study children's drawings
Source: a student's unpublished papers 'Notes on Drawing and Water Golor, 1935-36', George Grosz estate, Princeton, N.J.; as quoted in: George Grosz: Leben und Werk, ed. Uwe M. Schneede; Verlag Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart 1975, p. 38

Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Gulzarilal Nanda photo
John Donne photo
Elizabeth Barrett Browning photo
Salvador Dalí photo
Blackie Lawless photo
Elizabeth Rowe photo
Vladimir Lenin photo
Auguste Rodin photo
Steve Gerber photo
William Stanley Jevons photo
Bernard Cornwell photo