Jack was too absorbed in his work to hear the bell. He was mesmerized by the challenge of making soft, round shapes of hard rock. The stone had a will of its own, and if he tried to make it do something it did not want to do, it would fight him, and his chisel would slip, or dig in too deeply, spoiling the shapes. But once he had got to know the lump of rock in front of him he could transform it. The more difficult the task, the more fascinated he was. He was beginning to feel that the decorative carving demanded by Tom was too easy. Zigzags, lozenges, dogtooth, spirals and plain roll moldings bored him, and even these leaves were rather stiff and repetitive. He wanted to curve natural-looking foliage, pliable and irregular, and copy the different shapes of real leaves, oak and ash and birch. Ken Follett
About This Quote

This quote relates to the fact that it is all too easy to get distracted or overwhelmed by the task at hand. You must learn to see the problem as an opportunity instead of a problem. It is not about beating yourself up for being "stuck". It is about learning how to enjoy the challenge and the joy of seeing progress made.

Jack had to find his own way. He had to find out what kind of work he liked doing, and then do that work. The quote closes by saying that Jack got lost in his work, but found his way by seeing all that he could achieve through hard work.

Source: The Pillars Of The Earth

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn't supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something. - Rainbow Rowell
  2. It is good to love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is well done. - Vincent Van Gogh
  3. Any fool can be happy. It takes a man with real heart to make beauty out of the stuff that makes us weep. - Clive Barker
  4. Art and love are the same thing: It’s the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you. - Chuck Klosterman
  5. There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people. - Vincent Van Gogh
More Quotes By Ken Follett
  1. Having faith in God did not mean sitting back and doing nothing. It meant believing you would find success if you did your best honestly and energetically.
  2. I think there are two kinds of marriage, " Ethel said thoughtfully. "One is a comfortable partnership, where two people share the same hopes and fears, raise children as a team, and give each other comfort and help." She was talking about herself and Bernie,...
  3. Fear could paralyse. Action was the antidote.
  4. He was nineteen years old, homeless and rootless, with no family and no purpose in life.
  5. ... people always credit prime ministers with more brains than they've got.
Related Topics