from My Life in Art



I mention all these memories also to show young artists how important it is for us to take in as many beautiful and strong impressions as we can. The artist must look at, and not only at but know how to see, the beautiful in all the spheres of his own art, of all other arts, and of life. He needs impressions of good performances, art, concerts, museums, voyages, and pictures of all tendencies, from the most academic to the most futuristic, for no one know what will move his soul and open the treasure house of his creative gifts. All tendencies are good which help to create the beautiful life of the human spirit in artistic forms, that, which reach the fundamental goal of art.
Let the artist live, let him be enchanted, disappointed, happy; let him suffer, love and live through the entire gamut of human emotions, but let him at the same time learn to recreate his life and his emotions into art!



And the imitation of a favorite actor can only create an outer method, but not the soul, without which there can be no art. Such a performance only makes for bad craftsmanship and works out a ready-made manner of acting which at times becomes a mechanical habit. But the misunderstanding of one's true ability and calling in the art is the strongest obstacle in the further development of an actor. It is a blind alley which he enters for tens of years, and from which he cannot get out until he realizes his mistakes and returns to the avenue that leads to the gates of pure art.