We’ve all had those days: The days when you can’t seem to get your mind to do anything useful. When the everyday seems difficult and trying to do anything creative is quite simply beyond your ability to conceive. Creative work is hard, and it can bring with it periods of maddening fallowness.

This book is designed for those days. The product of hours of scouring libraries and art galleries, Grit in the Oyster gathers a bounty of quotations to help get you through. Inspirational, sympathetic, fiery, determined—the contemporary and historical voices here are guaranteed to help you push that creative boulder just a bit farther along. Keep this one by your bedside, or your studio table, and turn to it whenever you need a boost—you’ll never come away without the renewed fire you need.