Quotes About Creativity

My writing often contains souvenirs of the day - a song I heard, a bird I saw - which I then put into the novel.

I think Freud is about contamination, but I think that is something he learned from Shakespeare, because Shakespeare is about nothing but contamination, you might say.

I spend my life writing fiction, so reading fiction isn't much of an escape. That's not always true, but I don't read much contemporary fiction.

I read very little contemporary anything... I don't think I read what other people read, but then why would I, considering what I do?

I think book clubs should read more contemporary poetry.

I don't think anybody does contemporary R&B albums better than me.

The number of contemporary artists who appeal to me is infinitesimal.

I especially like to collect contemporary art.

Musical composition, about which I know little, is a complicated art, and some contemporary music may be the equivalent of a complex abstract painting.

In the contemporary world, artists are almost entirely self-referential.

Science fiction was one of those places, particularly during the McCarthy era, where you could write whatever you wanted because it was beneath contempt. They didn't bother censoring it.

I would be content if I had nothing but a tape-recorder. I could still write songs and record them.

Content begets content.

The kind of content I want to be part of is hardly made.

My lyrical content is all about entertainment.

Not content, but the road the artist takes, is the interesting part.

One doesn't want to feel too contented; you have to feel challenged by the music.

Literature, of course, is not a contest.

I find it very hard to sit down and create an idea or especially a new character on command. Usually my characters evolve by accident out of some story context.

As a writer, I can't really take days off. Writing is like creating an art. Once you stop writing, you can lose your rhythm and context, meaning that your writing may lose its power.

People act like art is a white thing - or not for people of colour - when, really, so much culture and art comes from people of colour. I want everyone to get into what I am doing. So sometimes I don't like to work just in an art context because it feels like a lot of people aren't going to see it. I like it to be a part of everyday life.

Sometimes people ask, 'Does writing make you happy?' But I think that's beside the point. It makes you agitated, and continually in a state where you're off balance. You seldom feel serene or settled.

I want to continue making things.

I can see me continuing to make the best music I can, and let the chips fall where they may.