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Writing, playing, composing, painting, reading, listening, looking-all require that we submit to being swept away by Eros, to a transformation of self of the kind that happens when we fall in love.

Stephen Nachmanovitch

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Stephen Nachmanovitch
Age: 74
Born: 1950
Born: November 2
Author
Jazz Musician
Kind
Playing
Eros
Love
Looking
Swept
Reading
Composing
Fall
Submit
Away
Require
Happens
Transformation
Self
Listening
Writing
Painting

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Commitment to a set of rules frees your play to attain a profundity and vigor otherwise impossible.
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Every moment of life is unique-a kiss, a sunset, a dance, a joke. None will ever recur in quite the same way. Each happens only once in the history of the universe.
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Creative work is play. It is free speculation using materials of ones chosen form.
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When we are totally faithful to our own individuality, we are actually following a very intricate design. This kind of freedom is the opposite of just anything.
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We provide both irritation and inspiration for each other- the grist for each other's pearl making.
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If we are transparent, with nothing to hide, the gap between language and being disappears. Then the Muse can speak.
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In improvisation, there is only one time. This is what computer people call real time. The time of inspiration, the time of technically structuring and realizing... the time of playing it, and the time of communicating with the audience, are all one.
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With too little judgement, we get trash. With too much judgement, we get blockage.
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Working within the limits of the medium forces us to change our own limits. Improvisation is not breaking with forms and limitations just to be 'free,' but using them as the very means of transcending ourselves.
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The beauty of playing together is meeting in the One.
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There is not ultimate breakthrough what we find in the development of a creative life is an open-ended series of provisional breakthroughs. In this journey there is no endpoint, because it is the journey into the soul.
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Memory and intention and intuition are fused. The iron is always hot.
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There are only people doing their imperfect best at doing their imperfect jobs
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Brahms once remarked that the mark of an artist is how much he throws away. Nature, the great creator, is always throwing things away. A frog lays several million eggs at a sitting. Only a few dozen of these become tadpoles, and only a few of those become frogs. We can let imagination and practice be as profligate as nature.
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If we split practice from the real thing, neither one of them will be very real.
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If the art is created with the whole person, then the work will come out whole. Education must teach, reach, and vibrate the whole person rather than merely transfer knowledge.
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The noun of self becomes a verb. This flashpoint of creation in the present moment is where work and play merge.
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The power of mistakes enables us to reframe creative blocks and turn them around...The troublesome parts of our work, the parts that are most baffling and frustrating, are in fact the growing edges. We see these opportunities the instant we drop our preconceptions and our self-importance.
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Improvisation is intuition in action, a way to discover the muse and learn to respond to her call.
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The professionalism of technique and flash of dexterity are more comfortable to be around than raw creative power, hence our society generally rewards virtuoso performers more highly than it rewards original creators.
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