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11 Motivational Quotes from Shel Silverstein

Katie AskewUpdated: Feb. 09, 2017

Find creative inspiration in these quotes, curated from interviews with the poetic and artistic genius Shel Silverstein.

Laura Formisano

Never explain what you do.

It speaks for itself. You only muddle it by talking about it. —Shel Silverstein

Laura Formisano

What I do is good.

I wouldn’t let it out if I didn’t think it was. —Shel Silverstein

Laura Formisano

I think if you’re a creative person,

you should just go about your business, do your work and not care about how it’s received. —Shel Silverstein

Laura Formisano

People who say

they create only for themselves and don’t care if they’re published…I hate to hear talk like that. If it’s good, it’s too good not to share. —Shel Silverstein

Laura Formisano

I never read reviews,

because if you believe the good ones you have to believe the bad ones too. —Shel Silverstein

Laura Formisano

You’d better get your laugh

while you’re making your point, or you won’t be doing it very long. —Shel Silverstein

Laura Formisano

I would hope that people, no matter what age,

would find something to identify with in my books, pick one up and experience a personal sense of discovery. —Shel Silverstein

Laura Formisano

Don’t be dependent on anyone else.

I want to go everywhere, look at, and listen to everything. You can go crazy with some of the wonderful stuff there is in life. —Shel Silverstein

Laura Formisano

Certainly as a group,

folksongs are the dumbest things in the world. —Shel Silverstein

Laura Formisano

If you want to find out

what a writer or a cartoonist really feels, look at his work. That’s enough. —Shel Silverstein

Laura Formisano

The young people have no patience

with craftsmanship any more. They think, therefore they am. It’s not enough. You don’t think, therefore you are. You do, therefore you are, or else you aren’t. —Shel Silverstein

Originally Published: September 23, 2014
Originally Published in Reader's Digest