Irving Stone
Irving Stone
Irving Stonewas an American writer, chiefly known for his biographical novels of noted artists, politicians and intellectuals; among the best known are Lust for Life, about the life of Vincent van Gogh, and The Agony and the Ecstasy, about Michelangelo...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth14 July 1903
CountryUnited States of America
sometimes vans angry
You cannot be the good all the time — sometimes it is necessary to get angry. [Vincent Van Gogh]
men forgiving sometimes
Sometimes men are generous and forgiving, sometimes angry and blind.
believe good romantic stay work
There's nothing romantic about my work... I don't believe in inspiration. I believe that you get to your desk, you stay there, you work, you think of nothing else. You write and you write, and in the end, you write something good.
document novel sets truth
The biographical novel sets out to document this truth, for character is plot, character development is action, and character fulfillment is resolution.
across art authentic delight documented face human life material novel purity raw true
The biographical novel is a true and documented story of one human being's journey across the face of the years, transmuted from the raw material of life into the delight and purity of an authentic art form.
deep father fear hated life painting seen spent strange women
Strange story about Degas. He hated women, didn't want to be with them. Yet he spent much of his life painting them. He had seen his father maltreat his mother, must have had a deep fear that he'd do the same thing.
becoming bottom five forget main page profession spend time year
In the biographical novel, there's only one person involved. I, the author, spend two to five years becoming the main character. I do that so by the time you get to the bottom of Page 2 or 3, you forget your name, where you live, your profession and the year it is. You become the main character of the book. You live the book.
art dead exhibit feet gallery gogh hanging invited italy move rabbits religious san saw van
I thought art was dead rabbits hanging by their feet on a wall. I went to Italy and saw all the religious paintings, and they didn't move me all that much. Then someone invited me to see this van Gogh exhibit at the Rosenberg Gallery in San Francisco.
began brilliant came content design human marvelous picasso stop
I came down successfully through Picasso and Braque, down through Pollock, I guess, but I began to stop at Franz Kline and the Abstractionists. I like their design, brilliant design, marvelous color layers. But I don't find any human content there. I'm from an old school, and painting has to have human content for me.
creative endless imagination impossible inside man
Even if there is endless documentation, it would be impossible to know what a man thought inside his own mind... This is where the novelist's creative imagination has to take over.
based
My books are based 98 percent on documentary evidence.
less meaning somewhat universal
My goal always is to tell a universal story, meaning it's about a person who has an idea, a vision, a dream, an ambition to make the world somewhat less chaotic.
cared cell cut lived looked picture room saw slept van worked
I slept in van Gogh's bed. I worked in the room where he painted. I saw the place where he was cared for when he cut off his ear. I lived in the jail cell where he stayed. And I looked out the window. You remember that picture of the cornfields through the bars? That was what I saw.
artist mediocrity rise-above
An artist would not rise above the mediocrity if he condemns it.