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| Thomas Edison, 1921. |
Fred White blogged in 2010 that “Being inspired smacks of amateurish, daydreamy passivity, the notion that some supernatural presence must appear before us before the words can flow. And we’re reminded to death of Thomas Edison’s overquoted words about invention demanding 99 percent perspiration and 1 percent inspiration, perhaps not realizing that without that primal 1 percent jolt from the gods, Edison might not have been driven to sweat out the hard work or to cope with a zillion things going wrong.”
Inspiration is important for any creative activity. In fact, some argue that art made the world (See Nigel Spivey’s How Art Made the World, 2005). When early humans produced art over 77,000 years ago, they crafted tools and embellished it with color, but the defining element that made it stand above their Homo habilis ancestors using tools is found the singular capacity of using the imagination. From these humble beginnings, civilizations were born.
And inspiration fires the imagination. I’ve asked some of my favorite people about their favorite inspirations, and include them below. All photographs are from the Library of Congress, used with permission.
From Laurie J. Edwards, YA author extraordinaire:
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| Henry Ford, 1924. His first car and his ten millionth car. |
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| Bamboo Gardens, China, 1900. |
"The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it." ~ Chinese Proverb
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| Martha Graham, Age 67, 1961. |
"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of
you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost." ~ Martha Graham
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| Eleanor Roosevelt, 1946. |
From Yvonne Ventresca, author of Pandemic:
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. . . .You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
And because it's Mark Twain:
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| Mark Twain, 1903. |
From Christina Banach, author of Minty and other YA fiction:
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” ~ Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird.
“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.” ~ Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird.
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| Historic mural depicting the Harper Lee novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird" located in Monroeville, Alabama. 1961. |
What inspires you?
Bobbi Miller
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