To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation.

The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.

Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there.

Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats.

Anybody caught selling macrame in public should be dyed a natural color and hung out to dry.

Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.

Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems.

To fashion a golden book, to weave a suit that will last some hundred years, it is necessary to feel, to think, and to write....We cannot think if we have no time to read, nor feel if we are emotionally exhausted, nor out of cheap material create what is permanent.

Only work which is the product of inner compulsion can have spiritual meaning.

The kitchen of cinema here is full of poisonous materials. But we are lucky as filmmakers to work in this kitchen. Because there is no audience, at least we don't have to worry about the censorship imposed by commercialism.

Only where love and need are one,
And the work is play for mortal stakes,
Is the deed ever really done
For Heaven and the future's sakes.

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves--goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

I need to produce great ideas, and I believe that if I were commissioned to design a new universe, I would be mad enough to undertake it.

Craft must have clothes but Truth loves to go naked.

Work is what you do for others, liebchen, art is what you do for yourself.

Have nothing in your house which you do not know to be useful or feel to be beautiful.

I think a craft becomes an art form when the space of possible solutions becomes so huge that engineering can't carry you through.

Architects, painters, sculptors, we must all return to crafts! For there is no such thing as "professional art". There is no essential difference between the artist and the craftsman. The artist is an exalted craftsman. By the grace of Heaven and in rare moments of inspiration which transcend the will, art may unconsciously blossom from the labour of his hand, but a base in handicrafts is essential to every artist. It is there that the original source of creativity lies.