Artistic Temperament Quotes

“Those around me persist in not understanding that I have never been able to live in a real world of people and things. And that is why I have this irrefutable need to escape and become involved in adventures which seem inexplicable because they involve a man no one recognizes. And perhaps that is what is best in me! Besides, an artist by definition is a man accustomed to dreams and who lives among phantoms. . . . How could it be expected that this same person would be able to follow in his daily life the strict observance of traditions— laws and other barriers erected by a hypocritical and cowardly world. (Letter from Claude Debussy to Jacques Durand)”
― Eric Frederick Jensen, Debussy

“The arbitrary influences affecting artists' vocabularies are many, and not necessarily all beneficial. The limiting trends of the day, the biting criticism, or the instruction insistent upon getting us to conform against our temperament can affect the work in profound ways, sometimes stalling us for decades.”
― Kate Kretz, Art from Your Core: A Holistic Guide to Visual Voice

“The Performative Sleepwalker
by Stewart Stafford

When the blood fires hot,
Let it simmer or fade gently,
Put night between it and day,
To slake the furnace temper bluer.

Exhaustion distorts each problem’s scale,
The clouding of an unmoored mind,
The creator reacts as emotion’s crucible—
Vocation’s sleepwalker, bound to muse.

In stagecraft, cursing, destroying their work—
Forged in and from drama; lashed to return
At the behest of their craft, no more than
Rock withholds metal from the smelter’s hand.

© 2026 Stewart Stafford. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford