Quotes About Creativity

I try to be a truthful artist and I try to show a level of courage. I enjoy that. I'm a messenger.

You can make any meal into a sandwich, and any sandwich into a meal.

That's not painting, that's Paint-By-Numbers. That's therapy for the artistically challenged. That's what they prescribe for cretins in dayrooms.

You're confusing product with process. Most people, when they criticize, whether they like it or hate it, they're talking about product. That's not art, that's the result of art. Art, to whatever degree we can get a handle on (I'm not sure that we really can) is a process. It begins in the heart and the mind with the eyes and hands.

If I could understand everything the way I do now, I could make it all--and then it just stopped. Leaving me with that feeling like when you figure out something brilliant and profound in a dream, but you wake up, and all you remember is that you knew this amazing thing, and now it's just out of reach.

Design by community is not design by committee…design is never democratic."[

Great art is never finished, only abandoned. — Leonardo da Vinci

If you're not cutting away more ideas than you keep, you're probably not doing discovery work right.

Great art is never finished, only abandoned.

Hackers, makers, programmers, engineers, nerds, techies — what we'll call "geeks" for the rest of the book (deal with it) — we're a creative lot who don't like to be told what to do.

I didn't much want to listen to constructive criticism from somebody whose decision making process so far seemed to be "What can I do that's more insane than the last thing I did?

What else kills monsters?" Lou shrugged. "Direct sunlight?" "Well, Lou, I'm afraid we already know his weakness isn't direct sunlight, because we've seen him out in the direct goddamn sun!" "We're brainstorming! You don't criticize ideas in a brainstorming session!

I like to believe most people's natural state is to be creative. It definitely was when we were kids, when being spontaneously and joyfully creative was just our default setting. As we grow we learn to evaluate and judge, to navigate the world with some discretion, and then we turn on ourselves. Creating can't just be for the sake of creating anymore. It has to be good, or it has to mean something. We get scared out of our wits by the possibility of someone rejecting our creation.

I think that may be the highest purpose of any work of art, to inspire someone else to save themselves through art. Creating creates creators.

search for "Rich Kelly & Friendship" and "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing." Then watch it. In its entirety. But if you're in a hurry, fast-forward to the 1:35 mark, when the bassist breaks into a happy foot solo.

Your ego wants to conceal your insecurity and your fear. And that's why it can be such an unwelcome intrusion when we're trying to create or perform. You need your human frailty to be at least somewhat visible if you want to connect on an emotional level

Music isn't a loaf of bread.

Melody is king. Songs are ruled by melody. I believe that melody, more than lyrics, is what does all the heavy lifting emotionally. When I write lyrics, or when I adapt a poem to a song, my goal is to interfere as little as possible with whatever spell is being cast by the melody. At the same time, I hope, at best, that the words enhance the song somehow, add meaning or clarify and underline what the melody is making me feel.

It seems to me that the only wrong thing I could do with whatever gifts I've been given as a musician or an artist would be to let curiosity die.

I became a songwriter not when I composed that perfect couplet, or experienced the right amount of pain. It's when I realized that whatever I wrote, even if it meant gutting myself in front of strangers, letting all those raw emotions come flooding out, making a fool of myself with my own words, was exactly what I always wanted to do with my life.

No work of art is ever finished; it can only be abandoned in an interesting place.

When I feel like I'm stuck, I try to put myself back in touch with the reality of the situation. There are no rules AND I make them!

The people who seem the most like geniuses are not geniuses. They're just more comfortable with failing. They try more and they try harder than other people, and so they stumble onto more songs. It's pretty simple. People who don't pick up a pencil never write a poem. People who don't pick up a guitar and try every day don't write a whole lot of great songs. If you don't ask, the answer is always no.

That's not the same sound someone else is going to make. We discount that as something we're supposed to measure against other people's imaginations, and that's a squandered gift.