Creativity Quotes

Think of the most obvious thing, then don't do it: It is easy to fall in love with an idea because you thought of it, but often you thought of it because it was obvious. This is not a rule, only a wise practice. Sometimes you will find that the obvious choice was the best choice, so in that case do the obvious thing, but not in an obvious way.

...lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and...stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to "walk about" into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?

Don’t wait for permission to make your art.

We owe it to ourselves to share our creativity with others.

If you're in tech, you can find artistry in what you're doing. Being creative with your tech is where success lies.

In order to create, you must have authentic experiences, and if you don’t have authentic experiences then you have nothing to work with.

All it takes is one idea - the right idea - to change everything.

Most academics know how to take something apart, but not how to assemble it.

Art is not about thinking something up. It is about the opposite – getting something down. The directions are important here.

People frequently believe the creative life is grounded in fantasy. The more difficult truth is that creativity is grounded in reality, in the particular, the focused, the well observed or the specifically imagined.

Creativity comes from constraints.

Writing just for the hell of it is heaven.

The need to be a great artist makes it hard to be an artist. The need to produce a great work of art makes it hard to produce any art at all.

Art is born in attention. Its midwife is detail.

Each of us has an inner dream that we can unfold if we will just have the courage to admit what it is. And the faith to trust our own admission. The admitting is often very difficult.

What we really want to do is what we are really meant to do. When we do what we are meant to do, money comes to us, doors open for us, we feel useful, and the work we do feels like play to us.

All things are from God; and above all, reason and imagination and the great gifts of the mind. They are good in themselves; and we must not altogether forget their origin even in their perversion.

The human mind is inspired enough when it comes to inventing horrors; it is when it tries to invent a Heaven that it shows itself cloddish.

We have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.

Not anyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.