Site uses cookies to provide basic functionality.

OK
1 ▲ ▼
Link Quote Stars Tags Author
22c7436 Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not. inspirational creativity Pablo Picasso
4403452 Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. imagination fantasy inspirational creativity Albert Einstein
cfb758a Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths. inspirational curiosity creativity Walt Disney Company
ac31cbd Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write act-of-creation poetry writing inspirational art creativity Rainer Maria Rilke
d70b496 One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. inspirational outsider self-discovery creative-process creativity mental-illness Friedrich Nietzsche
cfcf02a A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral. great-quotes inspirational creativity Antoine de Saint-Exupery
70a0163 "A tragedy is a tragedy, and at the bottom, all tragedies are stupid. Give me a choice and I'll take tragedy creativity Stephen King
da1a8e5 There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard music inspirational idic innovation diversity colors problem-solving invention creativity Sun Tzu
d6e550b There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard. There are not more than five primary colours, yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen. There are not more than five cardinal tastes, yet combinations of them yield more flavours than can ever be tasted. music inspirational idic innovation diversity problem-solving invention creativity Sun Tzu
84fc2c5 Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity inspirational creativity T.S. Eliot
6e2bc00 It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming up of themselves like grass. Yet regardless of where they come from, I cannot remember a time when I was not in love with them -- with the books themselves, cover and binding and the paper they were printed on, with their smell and their weight and with their possession in my arms, captured and carried off to myself. Still illiterate, I was ready for them, committed to all the reading I could give them ... literature reading writing inspiration storytelling creativity Eudora Welty
1e73341 Write while the heat is in you. The writer who postpones the recording of his thoughts uses an iron which has cooled to burn a hole with. He cannot inflame the minds of his audience. writing inspirational creativity Henry David Thoreau
6e8b978 That's the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you. ideas creativity Ray Bradbury
19fec60 Our job in this life is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it. writing inspiration sociology creativity Steven Pressfield
76ce296 The criminal is the creative artist; the detective only the critic. criticism critic detectives mystery crime creativity G.K. Chesterton
d2e4bfd Art isn't only a painting. Art is anything that's creative, passionate, and personal. And great art resonates with the viewer, not only with the creator. What makes someone an artist? I don't think is has anything to do with a paintbrush. There are painters who follow the numbers, or paint billboards, or work in a small village in China, painting reproductions. These folks, while swell people, aren't artists. On the other hand, Charlie Chaplin was an artist, beyond a doubt. So is Jonathan Ive, who designed the iPod. You can be an artists who works with oil paints or marble, sure. But there are artists who work with numbers, business models, and customer conversations. Art is about intent and communication, not substances. An artists is someone who uses bravery, insight, creativity, and boldness to challenge the status quo. And an artists takes it personally. That's why Bob Dylan is an artist, but an anonymous corporate hack who dreams up Pop 40 hits on the other side of the glass is merely a marketer. That's why Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos, is an artists, while a boiler room of telemarketers is simply a scam. Tom Peters, corporate gadfly and writer, is an artists, even though his readers are businesspeople. He's an artists because he takes a stand, he takes the work personally, and he doesn't care if someone disagrees. His art is part of him, and he feels compelled to share it with you because it's important, not because he expects you to pay him for it. Art is a personal gift that changes the recipient. The medium doesn't matter. The intent does. Art is a personal act of courage, something one human does that creates change in another. artists passion courage meaning work change creativity Seth Godin
4ba0904 When you become the image of your own imagination, it's the most powerful thing you could ever do. destiny identity imagination inspirational transcendence self transformation power creativity RuPaul
e203da9 Remember that things are not always as they appear to be... Curiosity creates possibilities and opportunities. opportunity leadership inspiration inspirational-quotes inspire life-quotes living motivation optimistic positive-affirmation positive-life inspiring positive positive-thinking motivational optimism life inspirational possibility leader leaders curiosity creativity Roy T. Bennett
a320680 Hearts can't be broken because they're made of marzipan. romance humor inspirational food creativity Kerstin Gier
2f2b7bf Women have sat indoors all these millions of years, so that by this time the very walls are permeated by their creative force, which has, indeed, so overcharged the capacity of bricks and mortar that it must needs harness itself to pens and brushes and business and politics. artists arts women empowerment restrictions encroachment careers occupation skills liberation women-writers gender creativity Virginia Woolf
b0a69a3 Each of us is an artist of our days; the greater our integrity and awareness, the more original and creative our time will become. integrity originality awareness creativity John O'Donohue
201822a "The artist is a servant who is willing to be a birthgiver. In a very real sense the artist (male or female) should be like Mary who, when the angel told her that she was to bear the Messiah, was obedient to the command. ...I believe that each work of art, whether it is a work of great genius, or something very small, comes to the artist and says, "Here I am. Enflesh me. Give birth to me." And the artist either says, "My soul doth magnify the Lord," and willingly becomes the bearer of the work, or refuses; but the obedient response is not necessarily a conscious one, and not everyone has the humble, courageous obedience of Mary. As for Mary, she was little more than a child when the angel came to her; she had not lost her child's creative acceptance of the realities moving on the other side of the everyday world. We lose our ability to see angels as we grow older, and that is a tragic loss." writing creativity obedience Madeleine L'Engle
023afcb "O Divine Poesy, goddess, daughter of Zeus, sustain for me this song of the various-minded man who, after he had plundered the innermost citadel of hallowed Troy, was made to stay grievously about the coasts of men, the sport of their customs, good and bad, while his heart, through all the sea-faring, ached with an agony to redeem himself and bring his company safe home. Vain hope - for them. The fools! Their own witlessness cast them aside. To destroy for meat the oxen of the most exalted Sun, wherefore the Sun-god blotted out the day of their return. Make this tale live for us in all its many bearings, O Muse." - from Homer's Odyssey, translation by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)" prayer creativity Steven Pressfield
3249e06 Artists are those who can evade the verbose. artists creativity Haruki Murakami
149dcb0 Everything you invent is true: you can be sure of that. Poetry is a subject as precise as geometry. poets poetry writing reality writers creativity Julian Barnes
a552298 The conventional mind is passive - it consumes information and regurgitates it in familiar forms. The dimensional mind is active, transforming everything it digests into something new and original, creating instead of consuming. conventionalism passivity creativity Robert Greene
23dad4e We need our Arts to teach us how to breathe arts creativity Ray Bradbury
17612f9 Relate comic things in pompous fashion. Irregularity, in other words the unexpected, the surprising, the astonishing, are essential to and characteristic of beauty. Two fundamental literary qualities: supernaturalism and irony. The blend of the grotesque and the tragic are attractive to the mind, as is discord to blase ears. Imagine a canvas for a lyrical, magical farce, for a pantomime, and translate it into a serious novel. Drown the whole thing in an abnormal, dreamy atmosphere, in the atmosphere of great days ... the region of pure poetry. irony poetry writing fantasy grotesque novel writers creativity Charles Baudelaire
a362e7a The trouble with you is that the only way you can communicate is through art. You've never learned to communicate your feelings to a man. You don't even want to communicate in a relationship. You think that if you open up to love, you'll lose your independence or your self-expression or creativity or whatever you call all that passionate, wonderful stuff that makes you feel alive inside. relationships love creativity Tom Robbins
bb40c1c Rule of thumb: The more important a call or action is to our soul's evolution, the Resistance we will feel toward pursuing it. writing inspirational creativity Steven Pressfield
6623759 When the woman you live with is an artist, every day is a surprise. Clare has turned the second bedroom into a wonder cabinet, full of small sculptures and drawings pinned up on every inch of wall space. There are coils of wire and rolls of paper tucked into shelves and drawers. The sculptures remind me of kites, or model airplanes. I say this to Clare one evening, standing in the doorway of her studio in my suit and tie, home from work, about to begin making dinner, and she throws one at me; it flies surprisingly well, and soon we are standing at opposite ends of the hall, tossing tiny sculptures at each other, testing their aerodynamics. The next day I come home to find that Clare has created a flock of paper and wire birds, which are hanging from the ceiling in the living room. A week later our bedroom windows are full of abstract blue translucent shapes that the sun throws across the room onto the walls, making a sky for the bird shapes Clare has painted there. It's beautiful. The next evening I'm standing in the doorway of Clare's studio, watching her finish drawing a thicket of black lines around a little red bird. Suddenly I see Clare, in her small room, closed in by all her stuff, and I realize that she's trying to say something, and I know what I have to do. woman freedom love birds creativity Audrey Niffenegger
67723ea I do not know anything about Art with a capital A. What I do know about is my art. Because it concerns me. I do not speak for others. So I do not speak for things which profess to speak for others. My art, however, speaks for me. It lights my way. artist creativity Mark Z. Danielewski
403324e A Gift for You I send you... A cottage retreat on a hill in Ireland. This cottage is filled with fresh flowers, art supplies, and a double-wide chaise lounge in front of a wood-burning fireplace. There is a cabinet near the front door, where your favorite meals appear, several times a day. Desserts are plentiful and calorie free. The closet is stocked with colorful robes and pajamas, and a painting in the bedroom slides aside to reveal a plasma television screen with every movie you've ever wanted to watch. A wooden mailbox at the end of the lane is filled daily with beguiling invitations to tea parties, horse-and-carriage rides, theatrical performances, and violin concerts. There is no obligation or need to respond. You sleep deeply and peacefully each night, and feel profoundly healthy. This cottage is yours to return to at any time. writing dreaming procrastination creativity Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (SARK)
6e8fca9 You have to be willing to spend time making things for no known reason. creativity Lynda Barry
3482a1e The professional learns to recognize envy-driven criticism and to take it for what it is: the supreme compliment. The critic hates most that which he would have done himself if he had had the guts. writing envy creativity Steven Pressfield
1c41f65 The middle path makes me wary. . . . But in the middle of my life, I am coming to see the middle path as a walk with wisdom where conversations of complexity can be found, that the middle path is the path of movement. . . . In the right and left worlds, the stories are largely set. . . . We become missionaries for a position . . . practitioners of the missionary position. Variety is lost. Diversity is lost. Creativity is lost in our inability to make love with the world. middle compromise diversity conversation left right creativity Terry Tempest Williams
3877393 To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution. writing inspiration sociology creativity Steven Pressfield
fd3e3b7 Vision without execution is hallucination. .. Skill without imagination is barren. Leonardo [da Vinci] knew how to marry observation and imagination, which made him history's consummate innovator. imagination creative-vision famous-artists famous-minds great-geniuses-of-world-history historic-inventors leonardo-da-vinci genius creativity Walter Isaacson
a2d90c9 "If little else, the brain is an educational toy. The problem with possessing such an engaging toy is that other people want to play with it, too. Sometime they'd rather play with yours than theirs. Or they object if you play with yours in a different manner from the way they play with theirs. The result is, a few games out of a toy department of possibilities are universally and endlessly repeated. If you don't play some people's game, they say that you have "lost your marbles," not recognizing that, while Chinese checkers is indeed a fine pastime, a person may also play dominoes, chess, strip poker, tiddlywinks, drop-the-soap or Russian roulette with his brain." individuality deviance normalizing society games toys creativity Tom Robbins
146291c Up on the Brooklyn Bridge a man is standing in agony, waiting to jump, or waiting to write a poem, or waiting for the blood to leave his vessels because if he advances another foot the pain of his love will kill him. suicide suffering poem poetry writing love blocks brooklyn artists-life bridge creativity Henry Miller
735dea3 We are all just beginners here, and we shall all die beginners. inspirational creativity Elizabeth Gilbert
d90e540 Change is not always a good thing. What I need is not change from one thing to another but transformation from who I am into who I was meant to become. Only when God's transforming power touches me can I begin to live the simpler, freer, fresher, more creative, more patient, more passionate, more sacrificial, riskier, rawer, more real, more love-driven life God intended for me all along. That transformation is what awaits all who dare to enter the story of God. As Paul wrote, 'Let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think' (Romans 12:2) free passion risk jesus god transform creativity Steven James
8a0ae11 "A writer or any artist can't expect to be embraced by the people. I've done records where it seemed like no one listened to them. You write poetry books that maybe 50 people read. And you just keep doing your work because you have to, because it's your calling. But it's beautiful to be embraced by the people. Some people have said to me, "Well, don't you think that kind of success spoils one as an artist? If you're a punk rocker, you don't want to have a hit record..." And I say to them, "Fuck you!" writing art creativity Patti Smith
5341ead "(about William Blake) As for Blake's happiness--a man who knew him said: "If asked whether I ever knew among the intellectual, a happy man, Blake would be the only one who would immediately occur to me." And yet this creative power in Blake did not come from ambition. ...He burned most of his own work. Because he said, "I should be sorry if I had any earthly fame, for whatever natural glory a man has is so much detracted from his spiritual glory. I wish to do nothing for profit. I wish to live for art. I want nothing whatever. I am quite happy." ...He did not mind death in the least. He said that to him it was just like going into another room. On the day of his death he composed songs to his Maker and sang them for his wife to hear. Just before he died his countenance became fair, his eyes brightened and he burst into singing of the things he saw in heaven. " freedom living happiness william-blake glory effort creativity Brenda Ueland
f9bcc3b Imperfection inspires invention, imagination, creativity. It stimulates. The more I feel imperfect, the more I feel alive. creative inspiration imagination imperfect imperfection creativity Jhumpa Lahiri
3875ef4 Write. Don't talk about writing. Don't tell me about your wonderful story ideas. Don't give me a bunch of 'somedays'. Plant your ass and scribble, type, keyboard. If you have any talent at all it will leak out despite your failure to pay attention in English. writing resilience diligence talent discipline creativity Glen Cook
ac897e9 I place my fingers upon these keys typing 2,000 dreams per minute and naked of spirit dance forth my cosmic vortex upon this crucifix called language. words literature books dreams national-poetry-month famous-quotes-from-classic-books literary-inspiration endurance nanowrimo prolific-authors writers-and-writing famous-authors the-writing-life determination language genius writers creativity jack-kerouac Aberjhani
e75d968 We...believe that art is religious, because it is one of man's highest aspirations. There is no such thing as pagan art, only good and bad art. spirituality religion judgement-of-art creativity Irving Stone
1cbb88c Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way. creative breaking-patterns thinking-differently patterns creativity Terry Tempest Williams
c68df56 Thankfully, perseverance is a great substitute for talent. perseverance celebrity-memoir creativity-and-attitude talent memoir creativity Steve Martin
7fc4882 I see this as the central issue of our time: how to find a substitute for war in human ingenuity, imagination, courage, sacrifice, patience... War is not inevitable, however persistent it is, however long a history it has in human affairs. It does not come out of some instinctive human need. It is manufactured by political leaders, who then must make a tremendous effort--by enticement, by propaganda, by coercion--to mobilize a normally reluctant population to go to war. war political-propaganda ingenuity peace creativity Howard Zinn
0c9efcf An artist without ideas is a mendicant; barren, he goes begging among the hours. inspiration creative-process ideas artist creativity Irving Stone
1b4e3ec Just as no monkey is as good-looking as the ugliest of humans, no academic is worthier than the worst of the creators artists arts criticism academics critics art-history art creativity Nassim Nicholas Taleb
1daff4e "(about William Blake) [Blake] said most of us mix up God and Satan. He said that what most people think is God is merely prudence, and the restrainer and inhibitor of energy, which results in fear and passivity and "imaginative death." And what we so often call "reason" and think is so fine, is not intelligence or understanding at all, but just this: it is arguing from our *memory* and the sensations of our body and from the warnings of other people, that if we do such and such a thing we will be uncomfortable. "It won't pay." "People will think it is silly." "No one else does it." "It is immoral." But the only way you can grow in understanding and discover whether a thing is good or bad, Blake says, is to do it. "Sooner strangle an infant in its cradle than nurse unacted desires." For this "Reason" as Blake calls it (which is really just caution) continually nips and punctures and shrivels the imagination and the ardor and the freedom and the passionate enthusiasm welling up in us. It is Satan, Blake said. It is the only enemy of God. "For nothing is pleasing to God except the invention of beautiful and exalted things." And when a prominent citizen of his time, a logical, opining, erudite, measured, rationalistic, Know-it-all, warned people against "mere enthusiasm," Blake wrote furiously (he was a tender-hearted, violent and fierce red-haired man): "Mere enthusiasm is the All in All!" freedom faith creativity Brenda Ueland
8d686d8 On certain occasions art can shake very ordinary spirits, and whole worlds can be revealed by its clumsiest interpreters. creativity Gustave Flaubert
29798de But however good you get at translating personality into line or paint it's no go if your personality isn't worth translating. personality creativity John Fowles
5971360 "Edward Gibbon, in his classic work on the fall of the Roman Empire, describes the Roman era's declension as a place where "bizarreness masqueraded as creativity." shock creativity Edward Gibbon
7ed0dcb Creativity is a way of living life, no matter what our vocation, or how we earn our living. Creativity is not limited to the arts... creative living life career vocation artist creativity Madeleine L'Engle
4f61ccd Very well then! I'll write, write write. He let the words soak into his mind and displace all else. A man had a choice, after all. He devoted his life to his work or to his wife and children and home. It could not be combined; not in this day and age. In this insane world where God was second to income and goodness to wealth. writing mad-house work-life-balance career writers creativity Richard Matheson
ad7788f With school turning out more runners, jumpers, racers, tinkerers, grabbers, snatchers, fliers, and swimmers instead of examiners, critics, knowers, and imaginative creators, the word 'intellectual,' of course, became the swear word it deserved to be. You always dread the unfamiliar. Surely you remember the boy in your own school class who was exceptionally 'bright,' did most of the reciting and answering while the others sat like so many leaden idols, hating him. And wasn't it this bright boy you selected and tortured after hours? Of course it was. We must all be alike. Not everyone born free and equal, as the Constitution says, but everyone equal. Each man the image of every other; then all are happy, for there are no mountains to make them cower, to judge themselves again. So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon. Breach man's mind. Who knows who might be the target of the well-read man? Me? mind equality free books imagination education happiness intelligence conform breach burning examiners fliers grabbers imaginative-creators jumpers knowers moutains racers runners snatchers swimmers tinkerers bright intellectual critics target image dread judgment unfamiliar judge constitution rights cowardice bullying weapons different creativity torture school Ray Bradbury
d466274 The creative impulse can be killed, but it cannot be taught...What a teacher can do...in working with children, is to give the flame enough oxygen so that it can burn. As far as I'm concerned, this providing of oxygen is one of the noblest of all vocations. vocation teaching creativity Madeleine L'Engle
5d7fe39 Millions of people can draw. Art is whether there is a scream in you wanting to get out in a special way. special talent uniqueness creativity Chaim Potok
421c020 "This is a perfectly good picture. And if I didn't know you, I would be impressed and charmed. But I do know you." He thought some more, wondering whether he dared say precisely what he felt, for he knew he could never explain exactly why the idea came to him. "It's the painting of a dutiful daughter," he said eventually, looking at her cautiously to see her reaction. "You want to please. You are always aware of what the person looking at this picture will think of it. Because of that you've missed something important. Does that make sense?" She thought, then nodded. "All right," she said grudgingly and with just a touch of despair in her voice. "You win." Julien grunted. "Have another go, then. I shall come back and come back until you figure it out." "And you'll know?" "You'll know. I will merely get the benefit of it." individuality independence paintings daughters fulfillment skills duty gift expectation perception creativity obedience Iain Pears
c04505d I have never created anything in my life that did not make me feel, at some point or another, like I was the guy who just walked into a fancy ball wearing a homemade lobster costume. But you must stubbornly walk into that room, regardless, and you must hold your head high. You made it; you get to put it out there. Never apologize for it, never explain it away, never be ashamed of it. You did your best with what you knew, and you worked with what you had, in the time that you were given. You were invited, and you showed up, and you simply cannot do more that that. They might throw you out - but then again, they might not. They probably won't throw you out, actually. The ballroom is often more welcoming and supportive than you could ever imagine. Somebody might even think you're brilliant and marvelous. You might end up dancing with royalty. Or you might just end up having to dance alone in the corner of the castle with your big, ungainly red foam claws waving in the empty air. that's fine, too. Sometimes it's like that. What you absolutely must not do is turn around and walk out. Otherwise, you will miss the party, and that would be a pity, because - please believe me - we did not come all this great distance, and make all this great effort, only to miss the party at the last moment. individuality motivation inspirational support hard-work work-ethic pride creativity Elizabeth Gilbert
a49f0ea Art was as much in the activity as in the results. Works of art were not just the finished product, but the thought, the action, the process that created them. artistry process creativity Jean M. Auel
5d64a0e "Over recent years, [there's been] a strong tendency to require assessment of children and teachers so that [teachers] have to teach to tests and the test determines what happens to the child, and what happens to the teacher...that's guaranteed to destroy any meaningful educational process: it means the teacher cannot be creative, imaginative, pay attention to individual students' needs, that a student can't pursue things [...] and the teacher's future depends on it as well as the students'...the people who are sitting in the offices, the bureaucrats designing this - they're not evil people, but they're working within a system of ideology and doctrines, which turns what they're doing into something extremely harmful [...] the assessment itself is completely artificial; it's not ranking teachers in accordance with their ability to help develop children who reach their potential, explore their creative interests and so on [...] you're getting some kind of a 'rank,' but it's a 'rank' that's mostly meaningless, and the very ranking itself is harmful. It's turning us into individuals who devote our lives to achieving a rank, not into doing things that are valuable and important. It's highly destructive...in, say, elementary education, you're training kids this way [...] I can see it with my own children: when my own kids were in elementary school (at what's called a good school, a good-quality suburban school), by the time they were in third grade, they were dividing up their friends into 'dumb' and 'smart.' You had 'dumb' if you were lower-tracked, and 'smart' if you were upper-tracked [...] it's just extremely harmful and has nothing to do with education. Education is developing your own potential and creativity. Maybe you're not going to do well in school, and you'll do great in art; that's fine. It's another way to live a fulfilling and wonderful life, and one that's significant . The whole idea is wrong in itself; it's creating something that's called 'economic man': the 'economic man' is somebody who rationally calculates how to improve his/her own status, and status means (basically) wealth. So you rationally calculate what kind of choices you should make to increase your wealth - don't pay attention to anything else - or maybe maximize the amount of goods you have. greed imagination education-reform eye-opening standardized-testing school-reform capitalism human-nature creativity Noam Chomsky
1d8ff60 I learned from the age of two or three that any room in our house, at any time of day, was there to read in, or be read to. reading writing creativity Eudora Welty
44fef85 When we drug ourselves to blot out our soul's call, we are being good Americans and exemplary consumers. destiny art consumerism soul creativity Steven Pressfield
ef82619 Creative work bridges time because the energy of art is not time-bound. If it were we should have no interest in the art of the past, except as history or documentary. But our interest in art is our interest in ourselves both now and always. Here and forever. There is a sense of the human spirit as always existing. This makes our death bearable. Life + art is a boisterous communion/communication with the dead. It is a boxing match with time. time history death life human-spirit creativity Jeanette Winterson
ed6c966 "God help me, he thought. God help all us poor wretches who could create and find we must lose our hearts for it because we cannot afford to spend our time at it. ("Mad House")" writing writers creativity Richard Matheson
8982bb4 "Then Deborah stood at the wicket gate, the boundary, and there was a woman with outstretched hand, demanding tickets. "Pass through," she said when Deborah reached her. "We saw you coming." The wicket gate became a turnstile. Deborah pushed against it and there was no resistance, she was through. "What is it?" she asked. "Am I really here at last? Is this the bottom of the pool?" "It could be," smiled the woman. "There are so many ways. You just happened to choose this one." Other people were pressing to come through. They had no faces, they were only shadows. Deborah stood aside to let them by, and in a moment they had gone, all phantoms. "Why only now, tonight?" asked Deborah. "Why not in the afternoon, when I came to the pool?" "It's a trick," said the woman. "You seize on the moment in time. We were here this afternoon. We're always here. Our life goes on around you, but nobody knows it. The trick's easier by night, that's all." "Am I dreaming, then?" asked Deborah. "No," said the woman, "this isn't a dream. And it isn't death, either. It's the secret world." The secret world... It was something Deborah had always known, and now the pattern was complete. The memory of it, and the relief, were so tremendous that something seemed to burst inside her heart. "Of course..." she said, "of course..." and everything that had ever been fell into place. There was no disharmony. The joy was indescribable, and the surge of feeling, like wings about her in the air, lifted her away from the turnstile and the woman, and she had all knowledge. That was it - the invasion of knowledge. ("The Pool")" time dream secret death imagination fantasy innocence knowledge night creativity Daphne du Maurier
ec0f1c4 "It doesn't matter if people are playing jazz or writing poetry -- if they want to be successful, they need to learn how to persist and persevere, how to keep on working until the work is done. Woody Allen famously declared that "eighty percent of success is showing up." NOCCA (New Orleans Center for the Creative Arts) teaches kids how to show up again and again." work imagination success creativity-work grit creativity Jonah Lehrer
3187b89 Things wabi-sabi have no need for the reassurance of status or the validation of market culture. They have no need for documentation of provenance. Wabi-sabi-ness in no way depends on knowledge of the creator's background or personality. In fact, it is best if the creator is no distinction, invisible, or anonymous. wabi-sabi creativity Leonard Koren
2897393 He said, one has to learn that painting well - in the academic and technical sense - comes right at the bottom of the list. I mean, you've got that ability. So have thousands. artists painting skill creativity John Fowles
309372d The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work. The working artist banishes from her world all sources of trouble. She harnesses the urge for trouble and transforms it in her work. artists trouble creativity Steven Pressfield
06252ad De la quietud nace la inspiracion y del movimiento surge la creatividad. creativity Isabel Allende
dddd1f0 Creation's probably overrated. After all, God made the world in only six days and rested on the seventh. god overrated seventh creativity Ernest Hemingway
73ba08c For us artists there waits the joyous compromise through art with all that wounded or defeated us in daily life; in this way, not to evade destiny, as do the ordinary people, but to fulfill it in its true potential - the imagination. fate love escapism creativity Lawrence Durrell
aff077a Gemeinsam aber ist allen Menschen, die des guten Willens sind, dieses: dass unsere Werke uns am Ende beschamen, dass wir immer wieder von vorn beginnen mussen, dass das Opfer immer neu gebracht werden muss. writing works kreativität schaffen schreiben werk german creative-writing creativity Hermann Hesse
a4ed17e Intellectual work sometimes, spiritual work certainly, artistic work always -- these are forces that fall within its grasp, forces that must travel beyond the realm of the hour and the restraint of the habit. Nor can the actual work be well separated from the entire life. Like the knights of the Middle Ages, there is little the creatively inclined person can do but to prepare himself, body and spirit, for the labor to come -- for his adventures are all unknown. In truth, the work itself is the adventure. And no artist could go about this work, or would want to, with less than extraordinary energy and concentration. The extraordinary is what art is about. inspirational creativity Mary Oliver
fee0a2d Henry had written a novel because there was a hole in him that needed filling, a question that needed answering, a patch of canvas that needed painting--that blend of anxiety, curiosity and joy that is at the origin of art--and he had filled the hole, answered the question, splashed colour on the canvas, all done for himself, because he had to. Then complete strangers told him that his book had filled a hole in them, had answered a question, had brought colour to their lives. The comfort of strangers, be it a smile, a pat on the shoulder or a word of praise, is truly a comfort. writing-life writer joy writing life inspirational writers-on-writing book painting strangers curiosity creativity Yann Martel
838d808 There are always two risks: the risk of trying something new, and the risk of not trying. You risk settling and continuing in the same way, wondering about other paths and possibilities, believing that this is as good as it gets while discontent gnaws away at your soul. risk possibilities discontent creativity Rob Bell
d3abe16 "It ain't bragging if you've done it. There's nothing wrong with being proud of doing something well. In fact, if you intend to do something creative for a living, it's absolutely essential. [check for wording] Proper pride says, "I'm good at this." Improper pride says, "I'm better than you." proud skill pride creativity James A. Owen
84abdf0 I will not stop singing the Muses who set me dancing. tragedy writer poetry joy work inspiration inspirational-quotes happiness life love euripides muses dancing sing creativity poet Anne Carson
70579d5 I watched him carefully. He was making art because he has to, and because he's brave enough to try and make contact, right there on the edge of madness, where he dreams. creativity Anne Lamott
667461c All this happened in much less time than it takes to tell, since I am trying to interpret for you into slow speech the instantaneous effect of visual impressions. writer love overly-descriptive retell retold show-and-tell boring exposition witness explanation testimony why retelling description creativity Joseph Conrad
6227ca7 Very few of us understand Honorable Bird, except to acknowledge that without his power and grace nothing would be written, painted, or composed at all. To say anything beyond this about the creative process is like pulling all the petals off a flower in order to analyze it, and ending up having destroyed the flower. holy-spirit creativity Madeleine L'Engle
c241f04 The artistic life is a long and lovely suicide precisely because it involves the negation of self; as Highsmith imagined herself as her characters, so Ripley takes on the personae of others and in doing so metamorphoses himself into a 'living' work of art. A return to the 'real life' after a period of creativity resulted in a fall in spirits, an agony Highsmith felt acutely. She voiced this pain in the novel via Bernard's quotation of an excerpt from Derwatt's notebook: 'There is no depression for the artist except that caused by a return to the self'. pain depression artistic-life negation-of-self work-of-art metamorphosis real-life creativity Andrew Wilson
dcd290e I found the whole modern world talking scientific fatalism; saying that everything is as it must always have been, being unfolded without fault from the beginning. The leaf on the tree is green because it could never have been anything else. Now, the fairy-tale philosopher is glad that the leaf is green precisely because it might have been scarlet. He feels as if it had turned green an instant before he looked at it. gratitude wonder humility creativity G.K. Chesterton
911c8dd The houses looked like something a child might draw, a row of shaky squares with triangles on top. Add a door, add two windows. Think of putting a tree in the front yard, and then decide against it because branches aren't worth the trouble. creativity David Sedaris
1dd90c7 The self is also a creation, the principal work of your life, the crafting of which makes everyone an artist. work self-improvement creativity Rebecca Solnit
65b0769 "Last night I thought about all that kerosene I've used in the past ten years. And I thought about books. And for the first time I realized that a man was behind each one of the books. A man had to think them up. A man had to take a long time to put them down on paper. And I'd never even thought that thought before." He got out of bed. "It took some man a lifetime maybe to put some of his thoughts down, looking around at the world and life and then I come along in two minutes and boom! it's all over." "Let me alone," said Mildred. "I didn't do anything." "Let you alone! That's all very well, but how can I leave myself alone? We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were bothered? About something important, about something real?" time world books reality work life bother kerosene lifetime reality-check observation real important create ignorance destruction thought creativity creation Ray Bradbury
6258b59 "Economics itself offers a parallel that explains why this integration affects creativity. Clay Christensen has written about the "Innovator's Dilemma": the fact that large traditional firms find it rational to ignore new, breakthrough technologies that compete with their core business. The same analysis could help explain why large, traditional media companies will undermine our tradition of free culture. The property right that is copyright is no longer the balanced right that it was, or was intended to be. The property right that is copyright has become unbalanced, tilted toward an extreme. The opportunity to create and transform becomes weakened in a world in which creation requires permission and creativity must check with a lawyer." culture creativity Lawrence Lessig
b6b83cb "Despite being a denizen of the digital world, or maybe because he knew all too well its isolating potential, Jobs was a strong believer in face to face meetings. " There's a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat,"he said."Thats crazy, Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, from random discussions. You run into someone, you ask what they're doing, you say ' Wow, and soon your cooking up all sorts of ideas." So he had the Pixar building planned to promote encounters and unplanned collaborations. " If a building doesn't encourage that, you'll lose a lot of innovation and the magic that's sparked by serendipity,"he said." collaboration networking creativity Walter Isaacson
03be2be Of course Tucker Crowe was in pain when he made [the record], but he couldn't just march into a recording studio and start howling. He'd have sounded mad and pathetic. He had to calm the rage, tame it and shape it so that it could be contained in the tight-fitting songs. Then he had to dress it up so that it sounded more like itself. music songwriting creativity Nick Hornby
2504112 [C]reative living is a path for the brave. creativity Elizabeth Gilbert
85695b5 The prerequisite of originality is the art of forgetting, at the proper moment, what we know. originality forgetting creativity creation Arthur Koestler
600e16c The aesthetic construct, and nothing else, has taught us to expose ourselves to a non-enslaving experience of rank differences. The work of art is even allowed to 'tell' us, those who have run away from form, something, because it quite obviously does not embody the intention to confine us. 'La poesie ne s'impose plus, elle s'expose' Something that exposes itself and proves itself in this test gains unpresumed authority. In the space of aesthetic simulation, which is at once the emergency space for the success and failure of the artistic construct, the powerless superiority of the works can affect observers who otherwise take pains to ensure that they have no lord, old or new, above them. poetry authority rilke creativity Peter Sloterdijk
65e69ac There's so much to write. Where should I start? I texted my old Jiko this question, and she wrote me back this: 'You should start where you are present individuality inspirational startup perspective creativity Ruth Ozeki
2f939f6 For the novelist or poet, for the scientist or artist, the question is not do ideas come from, the question is how they come. The is the mystery. The how is fragile. artists poets poems books inspiration science scientists ideas novelists creativity E.L. Konigsburg
268375f Many great ideas are not unique. They only become unique when the men who have the wherewithal actually to implement them come together. opportunity truth idea implement meet occur quality make ideas unique creativity Robin Hobb
bb49681 Instructors could teach the basic techniques and methods, but a mastery of mechanical knowledge could never make a person an artist. No one could teach creativity or invention. A spark needed to come from within. It must be something unique, something discovered by the individual, a leap of understanding, a burst of insight, the combining of common elements in an unexpected way. inspiration creativity Michael J. Sullivan
daac5e5 What we get when we turn pro is we find our power. We find our will and our voice and we find our self-respect. We become who we always were but had, until then, been afraid to embrace and live out. motivation professional authors creativity Steven Pressfield
1679f61 If a person loves something above all else, if he values the work of his heart and hands, then he should naturally, without hesitation, pour into it his whole soul, undivided and pure. Great art demands nothing less. work love creativity creation Susan Vreeland
76e3508 "He had entered another imaginative world, one connected to the beginning of his life as a writer, to the Napoleonic world that had been a lifelong metaphor for the power of art, for the empire of his own creation He began to dictate notes for a new novel, "fragments of the book he imagines himself to be writing." As if he were now writing a novel of which his own altered consciousness was the dramatic center, he dictated a vision of himself as Napoleon and his own family as the Imperial Bonapartes....William and Alice he grasped with his regent hand, addressing his 'dear and most esteemed brother and sister.' To them, to whom he had granted countries, he now gave the responsibility of supervising the detailed plans he had created for 'the decoration of certain apartments, here of the Louvre and Tuileries, which you will find addressed in detail to artists and workment who take them in hand.' He was himself the 'imperial eagle.' Taking down the dictation, Theodora [his secretary] felt it to be almost more than she could bear. 'It is a heart-breaking thing to do, though, there is the extraordinary fact that his mind retain the power to frame perfectly characteristic sentences." writing death imagination sentence-structure syntax delirium hallucination novel-writing language novelists creativity Fred Kaplan
7bb5517 [There is a] quiet glory [in] merely making things, and then sharing those things with an open heart and no expectations. being-creative make-stuff make-things making-things glory creativity Elizabeth Gilbert
a40958d His art springs out of bubbling underground necessity, as if he's somehow dipping himself into the river that gave him life; he's making dream material visible. creativity Anne Lamott
79a6df8 "Do you have the courage? Do you have the courage to bring forth this work? The treasures that are hidden inside you are hoping you will say yes." (quoting Jack Gilbert)" creativity Elizabeth Gilbert
d6d4a75 Creativity is the result of renunciation on the journey of spiritual enlightenment, not of a thirst for glory or personal pride. enlightenment spirituality life renunciation glory pride creativity Ray Mancini
6a8e9cf It takes more courage to disturb the neighborhood than it takes to disturb the universe. And the price is often higher. courage books science change revolution ideas creativity E.L. Konigsburg
40baf7e Everything I've ever written has brought me into being. Every project has matured me in a different way. I am who I am today precisely because of what I have made, and what it has made me into. Creativity has hand raised me and forged me into an adult. writting creativity Elizabeth Gilbert
4b95ae5 If you remove adversity, you remove ingenuity and creativity with it. There is no need to strive to make something beautiful or better if it already is. ingenuity creativity Ilona Andrews
d369791 . . . in every created thing, whether it is alive or whether is what we usually call inanimate, there is an attempt to communicate, even among the totally silent. There is a question being asked, a different question for every entity, which for the most part will never be put into words, even by those who can speak. creativity Penelope Fitzgerald
60a4dd1 Shakespeare was a far better psychologist than Freud, and Jane Austen a far better sociologist than Durkheim shakespeare freud sociology creativity psychology Matt Ridley
91cab3a In some way, every creative action disturbs the universe. literature revolution creativity creation E.L. Konigsburg
8936694 Rough work with a soul will always be open to all, including condemnation & reviling, while fine work housing emptiness is closed to all insults & is easily ivied over with paid praises inspirational commercialization creativity Richard Flanagan
8e38d90 "Many of the stories we take to be true or fixed about ourselves can change dramatically when we have conversations with people who make our world larger, not smaller. By doing our part to develop rather than diminish our voice, we can: - Create a more accurate and complex picture of ourselves and another person. - Speak with honor and personal integrity even when the other person behaves badly. - Strengthen our capacity for creativity, wisdom, joy, and zest. integrity strength love voice intimacy creativity Harriet Lerner Ph.D.
f7b4a6e Those around me persist in not understanding that I have never been able to live in a real world of people and things. And that is why I have this irrefutable need to escape and become involved in adventures which seem inexplicable because they involve a man no one recognizes. And perhaps that is what is best in me! Besides, an artist by definition is a man accustomed to dreams and who lives among phantoms. . . . How could it be expected that this same person would be able to follow in his daily life the strict observance of traditions-- laws and other barriers erected by a hypocritical and cowardly world. (Letter from Claude Debussy to Jacques Durand) artists music artistic-temperament debussy composition creativity Eric Frederick Jensen
f9c05f3 You do everything by the book, like everybody else, you get the same results s everybody else. ingenuity creativity Jim Butcher
77f4af6 It takes a special energy, over and above one's creative potential, a special audacity or subversiveness, to strike out in a new direction once one is settled. It is a gamble as all creative projects must be, for the new direction may not turn out to be productive at all. science creativity Oliver Sacks
73f4be2 There is a sense of the human spirit as always existing. This makes our own death bearable. existence death life creativity Jeanette Winterson
778208c Children are less easily frightened than we are.... they all understand princesses, of course. Haven't they all been badly bruised by peas? understanding fear imagination princesses creativity Madeleine L'Engle
ebbf616 Human artistic expression is blessedly, refreshingly nonessential. That's exactly why I love it so much. [...] The fact that I get to spend my life making objectively useless things means [...] I am not exclusively chained to the grind of mere survival. It means we still have space left in our civilization for the luxuries of imagination and beauty and emotion - and even total frivilousness. Pure creativity is magnificent expressly because it is the opposite of everything else in life that's essential or inescapable (food, shelter, medicine [...]). Pure creativity is something better than necessity; it's a gift. It's the frosting. be-creative dare-to-be-pointless frivilous frivilousness making-art luxury make-art create creativity Elizabeth Gilbert
1 ▲ ▼