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Top 30 David Bayles Quotes (2025 Update)

David Bayles Quote: “Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead. – Gene Fowler.”

1. “Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead. – Gene Fowler.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “We do not long remember those artists who followed the rules more diligently than anyone else. We remember those who made the art from which the “rules” inevitably follow.”

2. “We do not long remember those artists who followed the rules more diligently than anyone else. We remember those who made the art from which the “rules” inevitably follow.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Training prepares you for a job; an education prepares you for life.”

3. “Training prepares you for a job; an education prepares you for life.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Your imagination is free to race a hundred works ahead, conceiving pieces you could and perhaps should and maybe one day will execute – but not today, not in the piece at hand. All you can work on today is directly in front of you. Your job is to develop an imagination of the possible.”

4. “Your imagination is free to race a hundred works ahead, conceiving pieces you could and perhaps should and maybe one day will execute – but not today, not in the piece at hand. All you can work on today is directly in front of you. Your job is to develop an imagination of the possible.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Art is human. Error is human. Art is error.”

5. “Art is human. Error is human. Art is error.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Computers are useless – all they can give you are answers. – Pablo Picasso.”

6. “Computers are useless – all they can give you are answers. – Pablo Picasso.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “For the artisan, craft is an end in itself. For you, the artist, craft is the vehicle for expressing your vision. Craft is the visible edge of art.”

7. “For the artisan, craft is an end in itself. For you, the artist, craft is the vehicle for expressing your vision. Craft is the visible edge of art.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Uncertainty is the essential, inevitable and all-pervasive companion to your desire to make art. And tolerance for uncertainty is the prerequisite to succeeding.”

8. “Uncertainty is the essential, inevitable and all-pervasive companion to your desire to make art. And tolerance for uncertainty is the prerequisite to succeeding.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “But the important point here is not that you have – or don’t have – what other artists have, but rather that it doesn’t matter. Whatever they have is something needed to do their work – it wouldn’t help you in your work even if you had it. Their magic is theirs. You don’t lack it. You don’t need it. It has nothing to do with you. Period. EXPECTATIONS.”

9. “But the important point here is not that you have – or don’t have – what other artists have, but rather that it doesn’t matter. Whatever they have is something needed to do their work – it wouldn’t help you in your work even if you had it. Their magic is theirs. You don’t lack it. You don’t need it. It has nothing to do with you. Period. EXPECTATIONS.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Quitting is fundamentally different from stopping. The latter happens all the time. Quitting happens once. Quitting means not starting again – and art is all about starting again.”

10. “Quitting is fundamentally different from stopping. The latter happens all the time. Quitting happens once. Quitting means not starting again – and art is all about starting again.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “The only work really worth doing – the only work you can do convincingly – is the work that focuses on the things you care about. To not focus on those issues is to deny the constants in your life.”

11. “The only work really worth doing – the only work you can do convincingly – is the work that focuses on the things you care about. To not focus on those issues is to deny the constants in your life.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “What separates artists from ex-artists is that those who challenge their fears, continue; those who don’t, quit. Each step in the artmaking process puts that issue to the test.”

12. “What separates artists from ex-artists is that those who challenge their fears, continue; those who don’t, quit. Each step in the artmaking process puts that issue to the test.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “The truth is that the piece of art which seems so profoundly right in its finished state may earlier have been only inches or seconds away from total collapse.”

13. “The truth is that the piece of art which seems so profoundly right in its finished state may earlier have been only inches or seconds away from total collapse.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Art is all about starting again.”

14. “Art is all about starting again.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Most of us spend most of our time in other peoples’ worlds – working at predetermined jobs, relaxing to pre-packaged entertainment – and no matter how benign this ready-made world may be, there will always be times when something is missing or doesn’t quite ring true.”

15. “Most of us spend most of our time in other peoples’ worlds – working at predetermined jobs, relaxing to pre-packaged entertainment – and no matter how benign this ready-made world may be, there will always be times when something is missing or doesn’t quite ring true.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Making art can feel dangerous and revealing. Making art is dangerous and revealing. Making art precipitates self-doubt, stirring deep waters that lay between what you know you should be, and what you fear you might be.”

16. “Making art can feel dangerous and revealing. Making art is dangerous and revealing. Making art precipitates self-doubt, stirring deep waters that lay between what you know you should be, and what you fear you might be.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “At any point along that path, your job as an artist is to push craft to its limits – without being trapped by it. The trap is perfection: unless your work continually generates new and unresolved issues, there’s no reason for your next work to be any different from the last.”

17. “At any point along that path, your job as an artist is to push craft to its limits – without being trapped by it. The trap is perfection: unless your work continually generates new and unresolved issues, there’s no reason for your next work to be any different from the last.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Making art now means working in the face of uncertainty ; it means living with doubt and contradiction, doing something no one much cares whether you do, and for which there may be neither audience nor reward. Making the work you want to make means setting aside these doubts so that you may see clearly what you have done, and thereby see where to go next. Making the work you want to make means finding nourishment within the work itself.”

18. “Making art now means working in the face of uncertainty ; it means living with doubt and contradiction, doing something no one much cares whether you do, and for which there may be neither audience nor reward. Making the work you want to make means setting aside these doubts so that you may see clearly what you have done, and thereby see where to go next. Making the work you want to make means finding nourishment within the work itself.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Control, apparently, is not the answer. People who need certainty in their lives are less likely to make art that is risky, subversive, complicated, iffy, suggestive or spontaneous. What’s really needed is nothing more than a broad sense of what you are looking for, some strategy for how to find it, and an overriding willingess to embrace mistakes and surprises along the way.”

19. “Control, apparently, is not the answer. People who need certainty in their lives are less likely to make art that is risky, subversive, complicated, iffy, suggestive or spontaneous. What’s really needed is nothing more than a broad sense of what you are looking for, some strategy for how to find it, and an overriding willingess to embrace mistakes and surprises along the way.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Fears about artmaking fall into two families: fears about yourself and fears about your reception by others.”

20. “Fears about artmaking fall into two families: fears about yourself and fears about your reception by others.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Only those who commit to following their own artistic path can look back and see this issue in clear perspective: the real question about acceptance is not whether your work will be viewed as art, but whether it will be viewed as your art. APPROVAL.”

21. “Only those who commit to following their own artistic path can look back and see this issue in clear perspective: the real question about acceptance is not whether your work will be viewed as art, but whether it will be viewed as your art. APPROVAL.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “We tell the stories we have to tell, stories of the things that draw us in-and why should any of us have more than a handful of those? The only work really worth doing-the only work you can do convincingly-is the work that focuses on the things you care about. To not focus on those issues is to deny the constants in your life.”

22. “We tell the stories we have to tell, stories of the things that draw us in-and why should any of us have more than a handful of those? The only work really worth doing-the only work you can do convincingly-is the work that focuses on the things you care about. To not focus on those issues is to deny the constants in your life.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “To require perfection is to invite paralysis.”

23. “To require perfection is to invite paralysis.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “Between the initial idea and the finished piece lies a gulf we can see across, but never fully chart. The truly special moments in artmaking lie in those moments when concept is converted to reality – those moments when the gulf is being crossed.”

24. “Between the initial idea and the finished piece lies a gulf we can see across, but never fully chart. The truly special moments in artmaking lie in those moments when concept is converted to reality – those moments when the gulf is being crossed.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “When you hold back, it holds back; when you hesitate, it stands there staring, hands in its pockets. But when you commit, it comes on like blazes.”

25. “When you hold back, it holds back; when you hesitate, it stands there staring, hands in its pockets. But when you commit, it comes on like blazes.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “But curiously, while artists always have a myriad of reasons to quit, they consistently wait for a handful of specific moments to quit. Artists quit when they convince themselves that their next effort is already doomed to fail. And artists quit when they lose the destination for their work – for the place their work belongs.”

26. “But curiously, while artists always have a myriad of reasons to quit, they consistently wait for a handful of specific moments to quit. Artists quit when they convince themselves that their next effort is already doomed to fail. And artists quit when they lose the destination for their work – for the place their work belongs.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “As far as most people are concerned, art may be acceptable as a profession, but certainly not as an occupation.”

27. “As far as most people are concerned, art may be acceptable as a profession, but certainly not as an occupation.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “What artist has not experienced the feverish euphoria of composing the perfect thumbnail sketch, first draft, negative or melody – only to run headlong into a stone wall trying to convert that tantalizing hint into the finished mural, novel, photograph, sonata. The artist’s life is frustrating not because the passage is slow, but because he imagines it to be fast.”

28. “What artist has not experienced the feverish euphoria of composing the perfect thumbnail sketch, first draft, negative or melody – only to run headlong into a stone wall trying to convert that tantalizing hint into the finished mural, novel, photograph, sonata. The artist’s life is frustrating not because the passage is slow, but because he imagines it to be fast.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “In large measure becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive.”

29. “In large measure becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “It’s a simple premise: follow the leads that arise from contact with the work itself, and your technical, emotional and intellectual pathway becomes clear.”

30. “It’s a simple premise: follow the leads that arise from contact with the work itself, and your technical, emotional and intellectual pathway becomes clear.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “It’s been a tough century for modesty, craftsmanship and tenderness.”

31. “It’s been a tough century for modesty, craftsmanship and tenderness.”

— David Bayles

$David Bayles Quote: “The unfolding over time of a great idea is like the growth of a fractal crystal, allowing details and refinements to multiply endlessly – but only in ever-increasing scale.”$

32. “The unfolding over time of a great idea is like the growth of a fractal crystal, allowing details and refinements to multiply endlessly – but only in ever-increasing scale.”

— David Bayles

David Bayles Quote: “It is, after all, hard to imagine placing a full-time teaching career atop a full-time artmaking career without something going awry in the process. As the old proverb cautions: if you chase two rabbits, you catch neither.”

33. “It is, after all, hard to imagine placing a full-time teaching career atop a full-time artmaking career without something going awry in the process. As the old proverb cautions: if you chase two rabbits, you catch neither.”

— David Bayles

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