Every artist knows that there is no such thing as…

Every artist knows that there is no such thing as “freedom” in art. The first thing an artist does when he begins a new work is to lay down the barriers and limitations; he decides upon a certain composition, a certain key, a certain relation of creatures or objects to each other. He is never free, and the more splendid his imagination, the more intense his feeling, the farther he goes from general truth and general emotion.

Sourced, Willa Cather on Writing (1949)

Light on Adobe Walls

Other Willa Cather Quotes

She used to drag her mattress beside her low window and lie awake for a long while, vibrating with excitement, as a machine vibrates from speed. Life rushed in upon her through that window— or so it seemed. In reality, of course, life rushes from within, not from without. There is no work of art so big or so beautiful that it was not once all contained in some youthful body, like this one which lay on the floor in the moonlight, pulsing with ardor and anticipation. - View Quote Details on She used to drag her mattress beside her low window…
There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before; like the larks in this country, that have been singing the same five notes over for thousands of years. - View Quote Details on There are only two or three human stories, and they…
The windy springs and the blazing summers, one after another, had enriched and mellowed that flat tableland; all the human effort that had gone into it was coming back in long, sweeping lines of fertility. The changes seemed beautiful and harmonious to me; it was like watching the growth of a great man or of a great idea. I recognized every tree and sandbank and rugged draw. I found that I remembered the conformation of the land as one remembers the modelling of human faces. - View Quote Details on The windy springs and the blazing summers, one after another,…
She remembered home as a place where there were always too many children, a cross man and work piling up around a sick woman. - View Quote Details on She remembered home as a place where there were always…
Nearly all the Escapists in the long past have managed their own budget and their social relations so unsuccessfully that I wouldn’t want them for my landlords, or my bankers, or my neighbors. They were valuable, like powerful stimulants, only when they were left out of the social and industrial routine. - View Quote Details on Nearly all the Escapists in the long past have managed…
Religion is different from everything else; because in religion seeking is finding. - View Quote Details on Religion is different from everything else; because in religion seeking…
There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no creeks or trees, no hills or fields. If there was a road, I could not make it out in the faint starlight. There was nothing but land: not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made. - View Quote Details on There seemed to be nothing to see; no fences, no…
The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no matter how close it has been to one’s own. - View Quote Details on The heart of another is a dark forest, always, no…
Every American travelling in England gets his own individual sport out of the toy passenger and freight trains and the tiny locomotives, with their faint, indignant, tiny whistle. Especially in western England one wonders how the business of a nation can possibly be carried on by means so insufficient. - View Quote Details on Every American travelling in England gets his own individual sport…
Desire is creation, is the magical element in that process. If there were an instrument by which to measure desire, one could foretell achievement. - View Quote Details on Desire is creation, is the magical element in that process…