25 Chuck Close on inspiration

This is one of my favourite quotes and it is worth looking at its extended context as well.

Says Chuck Close in an interview with Inside the Painter’s Studio, ‘Inspiration is for amateurs - the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will - through work - bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great [idea]. And the belief that process, in a sense, is liberating and that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every day. Today, you know what you’ll do, you could be doing what you were doing yesterday, and tomorrow you are gonna do what you [did] today, and at least for a certain period of time you can just work. If you hang in there, you will get somewhere.’

Picasso said it more humorously: ‘Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.’