Quotes from Shaun McNiff

Creative freedom is determined by how we behold the world. Any one of us can make new things with our perceptions that serve as doorways to the creative imagination. No one is excluded.

A person's license to create is irrevocable, and it opens to every corner of daily life. But it is always hard to see that doubt, fear, and indirectness are eternal aspects of the creative path.

Creativity cannot flourish and reach its deepest potential without the participation of its demons as well as its angels.

We learn from continual practice, but exercises need variety in order to solicit new responses.

As Jung suggests, a better understanding of inner processes will benefit what we do in the "outer" world of therapeutic practice.

Imagine consultants coming into an organization to help people look at their most routine daily action … as extensions of the creative process.

A person's license to create is irrevocable, and it opens to every corner of daily life. But it is always hard to see that doubt, fear, and indirectness are eternal aspects of the creative path.

Writing and painting are modes of performance. We begin in stillness and make contact with what moves through us at the moment. If there is a resistance to expression, we acknowledge its presence and try to accept its place in our life at that moment. Relaxing with the resistance helps to release its negative hold on expression.

The people with whom we live are often the ones whose presence arouses the least reaction from us. Although we are intimately accustomed to their expressions, we tend to be less aware of them. This unconsciousness often accounts for the ease of coexistence, but it has its shadow in a lack of appreciation. The same thing happens with our relationships with art materials.

Spaces are forever acting on us and stimulating a creative range of expressions.

But there is very little emphasis within our educational systems on the education of the imagination, which requires sustained encounters with uncertainty.

The people with whome we live are often the ones whose presence arouses the least reaction from us. Although we are intimately accustomed to their expressions, we tend to be less aware of them. This unconsciousness often accounts for the ease of coexistence, but it has its shadow in a lack of appreciation. The same thing happens with our relationships with art materials.

Creative expression requires an ability to work with feelings and channel them. Frustration, dissatisfaction, and even a sense of desperation may help you access an eloquence you never knew existed.

Creation is a sentient and instinctual flow that determines where to go and what to change or omit.

We can only learn about creativity through our own experience of it.