Stephanie Storey > Quotes

“I think … the greater danger for most of us is not in aiming too high and falling short, but in aiming too low and hitting the mark.”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“A drop of ocean water had the ambition to rise high into the air. So, with the help of fire, it rose as vapor, but when it flew so high that the air turned cold, it froze and fell from the sky as rain. The parched soil drank up the little drop and imprisoned it for a long time: punishment for its greedy ambition. You’re”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“Wisdom is the daughter of experience,” Michelangelo”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“Chaos erupting into beauty. That’s art.”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“think … the greater danger for most of us is not in aiming too high and falling short, but in aiming too low and hitting the mark.” “I”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“The desperate brutality of men grasping for power is one of the universe’s great idiocies.”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“My interests don’t distract me from my art, but feed it. Music feeds math feeds science feeds painting. The only way to create something unique is to make connections between seemingly disparate things. If I focus only on art, my art will die.”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“Simplicity was the ultimate sophistication, the path to true complexity.”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“But if machines, and only machines, were responsible for duplicating images, human connection would disappear altogether. Humanity would be destroyed.”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“I don’t choose to be alone. I just am. – Michelangelo”
― Stephanie Storey, Raphael, Painter in Rome

“We are like lovers, aren’t we, we artists?” Michelangelo dragged his fingers across the rough stone. “Timid at first, skeptical about what we might find beneath the surface, but the more time we spend with the objects of our desire, the more we start to understand them. We find their flaws but also their possibilities. And when we connect, our hearts beat in time, and when we speak, our voices come from one mouth. Through love, we dialogue with our own souls.” Michelangelo opened”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“Donatello”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“With the explosion of books, people were more likely to rely on the theories of other men instead of learning from their own experiences. That path led to the regurgitation of old ideas, not newly formed thoughts. With a large library, people would no longer memorize facts, but look up whatever they wanted to know in a book.”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“Patience protects us against insults just as clothes against the cold.”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“When fearful, people would give up their money, their land, even their freedom, all to protect their security, which, ironically, could never actually be protected.”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“My mother always told me that to succeed in this world, walk like you know where you’re going, and why — especially if you’re afraid. – Raphael”
― Stephanie Storey, Raphael, Painter in Rome

“Handsomeness without cleanliness is wasted. - Mother of Raphael”
― Stephanie Storey, Raphael, Painter in Rome

“The body is a reflection of the soul; the more moral a person, the more beautiful – Michelangelo”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble

“There’s nothing more perfect than perfect. - Raphael”
― Stephanie Storey, Raphael, Painter in Rome

“Always let the patrons think they are smarter than you. – Michelangelo”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble

“Satan may never win the war, but he can always win a battle. - Bibbiena”
― Stephanie Storey, Raphael, Painter in Rome

“I once was what you are, and what I am will be also. - Masaccio”
― Stephanie Storey, Raphael, Painter in Rome

“If you refuse me for a friend, you shall have me as your enemy.”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“People are more inclined to believe bad intentions than good ones. - Boccaccio”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble

“Fear is nothing but pain arising from the anticipation of evil. – Aristotle”
― Stephanie Storey, Raphael, Painter in Rome

“But he wasn’t procrastinating because he didn’t want to work on the friar’s painting. No. A masterpiece did not pop immediately to mind. He had to knead the problems like dough: how could the Virgin’s face fulfill classical expectations of beauty, yet surprise the viewer with the unexpected; how could each of the figures maintain their separate identities, yet intertwine into a single whole; how could he transform a few scratches of lines on paper into a living, breathing, complex organism? Creating new life took time. Now that his first year was almost up, Leonardo needed to convince the friars to let him stay. He had barely made any progress on human flight. Relocating now would interrupt his experiments. He had to prove that he was not only working on the altarpiece, but that a painting by him would be worth the wait. So, for the last two weeks, he had been displaying his design to the public, and now he had invited the friars up to witness the spectacle. As the song came to an end, Leonardo stepped onto a raised platform next to a large panel covered in a piece of black velvet. He raised his hand with a flourish, and Salaì yanked off the cloth. His cartoon, the life-sized preparatory drawing for the altarpiece, was displayed on a gilded pedestal. Candlelight illuminated the charcoal and chalk sketch on thin, tinted paper. The picture was of St. Anne, the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and baby Jesus, all interconnected in a surging, pyramidal composition. The four figures were vibrant, their faces the ideal of classical beauty. He’d spent months dreaming up that image before putting it down on paper, so when he’d finally started sketching, the lines seemed to appear in a flash. Like his performance that night, it was all part of his show. Let the people think the design had arrived complete and perfect, as if sent by God himself.”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“Love defies planning, doesn’t it? There is no reason and no answer and no rhyme that can recreate it. But in an instant we feel it, a tingle on top of our heads, down our necks, into our fingertips. And we don’t know why or how it’s there, but it is, existing because of us, in spite of us. We don’t know what it is. We don’t know, and in the very act of not knowing, we feel everything.”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“In oils, a perfect brushstroke is all about blending layers. No wonder oils are so good at capturing life: like people, oil paintings are created by blending together weeks, months, years of layer, after unexpected later. – Raphael”
― Stephanie Storey, Raphael, Painter in Rome

“wish understanding human beings was as simple as counting the number of trees in a forest or observing how a bird glides through the air.”
― Stephanie Storey, Oil and Marble: A Novel of Leonardo and Michelangelo

“Now, I know that when everything seems perfect —perhaps especially when everything seems perfect — you must appreciate it because somewhere around some corner, far in the future or just up ahead, things would always be so good. - Raphael”
― Stephanie Storey, Raphael, Painter in Rome