Quotes About Creativity

THOSE WHO WOULD MAKE ART might well begin by reflecting on the fate of those who preceded them: most who began, quit.

Artists come together in the clear knowledge that when all is said and done, they will return to their studio and practice their art alone. Period. That simple truth may be the deepest bond we share.

Making art is a common and intimately human activity, filled with all the perils (and rewards) that accompany any worthwhile effort.

This book is about what it feels like to sit in your studio or classroom, at your wheel or keyboard, easel or camera, trying to do the work you need to do.

Making art is difficult. We leave drawings unfinished and stories unwritten. We do work that does not feel like our own. We repeat ourselves. We stop before we have mastered our materials, or continue on long after their potential is exhausted. Often the work we have not done seems more real in our minds than the pieces we have completed. And so questions arise: How does art get done? Why, often, does it not get done? And what is the nature of the difficulties that stop so many who start?

When your only tool is a hammer, so the saying goes, everything looks like a nail.

Art is human; error is human; ergo, art is error.

We have a language that reflects how we learn to paint, but not how we learn to paint our paintings. How do you describe the [reader to place words here] that changes when craft swells into art?

But while mastering technique is difficult and time-consuming, it's still inherently easier to reach an already defined goal — a "right answer" — than to give form to a new idea. It's easier to paint in the angel's feet to another's master-work than to discover where the angels live within yourself.

The artist's life is frustrating not because the passage is slow, but because he imagines it to be fast.

Making art precipitates self-doubt, stirring deep waters that lay between what you know you should be, and what you fear you might be.

You're a writer. Make it up.

Writing is no answer but when you feel deeply there is little else to do.

The primary distinction of the artist is that he must actively cultivate that state which most men, necessarily, must avoid the state of being alone.

The secret of good cooking is, first, having a love of it… If you're convinced that cooking is drudgery, you're never going to be good at it, and you might as well warm up something frozen.

I'm going to break one of the rules of the trade here. I'm going to tell you some of the secrets of improvisation. Just remember—it's always a good idea to follow the directions exactly the first time you try a recipe. But from then on, you're on your own.

In a way song writing can almost be detrimental, because suddenly you find an outlet that is a kind of cheating. You don't need to have direct communication. You can say, 'I can't describe it to you, but I will record it and send it to you.'

Age does not guarantee wisdom. And youth is no guarantee of innovation.

The best good man, with the worst natur'd muse.

When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. I have several stands.

The desire to write perfectly of beautiful happenings is, as the saying runs, old as the hills and as immortal.

Poetry is man's rebellion against being what he is.

I can but repeat that art is not a branch of pedagogy!

Yes, I repeat, there is always something to be done with words, and here are thirty-two authentic words from the Master Philologist himself, not to speak of three commas and a full-stop. Oh, I shall certainly go far with this.