Quotes About Inspiration

Ler, ler, ler, viver a vida que outros sonharam...

Una mujer que con su sola presencia aligeraba la pesadumbre de vivir.

Amaba el libro, pero el libro espontáneamente elegido. Ella entendía que el vicio o la virtud de leer dependían del primer libro. Aquel que llegaba a interesarse por un libro se convertía inevitablemente en esclavo de la lectura. Un libro te remitía a otro libro, un autor a otro autor, porque, en contra de lo que solía decirse, los libros nunca te resolvían problemas sino que te los creaban, de modo que la curiosidad del lector siempre quedaba insatisfecha.

Las cosas aprendidas por gusto se pegan más a la memoria que las aprendidas por obligación.

I believe dreams represent the purest form of fantasy we unleash through our subconscious. They represent the truest freedom we can experience. Totally unrepressed and totally creative.

As with men, it has always seemed to me that books have their own peculiar destinies. They go towards the people who are waiting for them and reach them at the right moment. They are made of living material and continue to cast light through the darkness long after the death of their authors.

Painters must want to paint above all else. If the artist in front of the canvas begins to wonder how much he will sell it for, or what the critics will think of it, he won't be able to pursue original avenues. Creative achievements depend on single-minded immersion.

The second reason creativity is so fascinating is that when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.

But consuming culture is never as rewarding as producing it.

After curiosity, this quality of concentrated attention is what creative individuals mention most often as having set them apart in college from their peers. Without this quality, they could not have sustained the hard work, the 'perspiration.' Curiosity and drive are in many ways the yin and the yang that need to be combined in order to achieve something new.

Luckily, the world is absolutely full of interesting things to do. Only lack of imagination, or lack of energy, stand in the way. Otherwise each of us could be a poet or musician, an inventor or explorer, an amateur scholar, scientist, artist, or collector.

A large majority of our respondents were inspired by a tension in their domain that became obvious when looked at from the perspective of another domain. Even though they do not think of themselves as interdisciplinary, their best work bridges realms of ideas. Their histories tend to cast doubt on the wisdom of overspecialization, where bright young people are trained to become exclusive experts in one field and shun breadth like the plague.

When people are asked to choose from a list the best description of how they feel when doing whatever they enjoy doing most—reading, climbing mountains, playing chess, whatever—the answer most frequently chosen is "designing or discovering something new.

it is never a waste to write for intrinsic reasons. First of all, writing gives the mind a disciplined means of expression.

When do we get to the interesting part—the tortured souls, the impossible dreams, the agony and the ecstasy of creation?

creative persons definitely know both extremes and experience both with equal intensity and without inner conflict.

a constant alternation between a highly concentrated critical assessment and a relaxed, receptive, nonjudgmental openness to experience. His attention coils and uncoils, its focus sharpens and softens, like the systolic and diastolic beat of the heart. It is out of this dynamic change of perspective that a good new work arises.

I am fooling around not doing anything, which probably means that this is a creative period, although of course you don't know until afterward. I think that it is very important to be idle. I mean, they always say that Shakespeare was idle between plays. I am not comparing myself to Shakespeare, but people who keep themselves busy all of the time are generally not creative. So I am not ashamed of being idle.

Assimilating the style of predecessors is necessary before one can develop one's own. Only by immersing oneself in the domain can one find out whether there is room left for contributing creatively to it, and whether one is capable of doing so.

The meaning of life is meaning: whatever it is, wherever it comes from, a unified purpose is what gives meaning to life.

Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives… most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity… [and] when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.

Artists agree that a painter cannot make a creative contribution without looking, and looking, and looking at previous art, and without knowing what other artists and critics consider good and bad art. Writers say that you have to read, read, and read some more, and know what the critics' criteria for good writing are, before you can write creatively yourself.

Now, people don't like this explanation. They say, "What? You think of junk?" I say, "Yup. You must." You cannot a priori think only of good ideas.

Albert Einstein once wrote that art and science are two of the greatest forms of escape from reality that humans have devised.