Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Artists should be honored for their future potential, not past work.
In plain terms
Celebrate artists for what they will do next.
What can you take from it?
Focus on an artist's future contributions.

Where it applies

  • criticism
  • patronage

Putting it to work

  • supporting creators
  • evaluating art

Questions to consider

  • What matters more past or future?
  • How do you judge art?

Another view

Past work often defines the foundation for future success.

More from William Saroyan

  1. Without pressure, the work doesn't get done at all.

    Permalink to quote #172
  2. Always, Bill talked about being and becoming a writer, of all the stories and ideas inside him that had to come out. We knew he had been sending out stories al…

    Permalink to quote #174
  3. I did my best, and let me urge you to do your best, too. Isn't it the least we can do for one another?

    Permalink to quote #171

Related quotes

  1. At present, I am a poet trying to be a soldier. To tell the truth, I am not interested in writing nowadays, except in so far as writing is the expression of so…

    Joyce KilmerJoyce Kilmer quote #1
  2. Quand vous serez bien vieille, au soir, a la chandelle, Assise aupres du feu, devidant et filant, Direz, chantant mes vers, en vous emerveillant: 'Ronsard me c…

    Pierre de RonsardPierre de Ronsard quote #1
  3. I hope some historian will confirm that I was the first cartoonist to use the word 'booger' in a newspaper comic strip.

    Bill WattersonBill Watterson quote #1