Quotes about Craftsmanship

Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

I write the kinds of novels I like to read, where the setting is rendered with love and care.

All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.

I look at making a record and being in a recording studio as more of a craft; You have to be so much more careful and play simpler.

The sign of the amateur is overglorification of and preoccupation with the mystery. The professional shuts up. She doesn't talk about it. She does her work.

We master the technique of our jobs.

The professional respects his craft. He does not consider himself superior to it. He recognizes the contributions of those who have gone before him. He apprentices himself to them. The professional dedicates himself to mastering technique not because he believes technique is a substitute for inspiration but because he wants to be in possession of the full arsenal of skills when inspiration does come.

My nails are my rhythm section when I'm writing a song all alone. Some day, I may cut an album, just me and my nails.

I don't aspire to just play things that are like me. Whether the accent is Taiwanese or British or Canadian - that is the very craft in which I was trained. It is my absolute privilege and honor to do that.

Then, again, there are three things which every artificer must possess if he is to effect anything,—nature, education, practice. Nature is to be judged by capacity, education by knowledge, practice by its fruit.

We are born makers. We move what we're learning from our heads to our hearts through our hands.