Quotes About Creativity

An intuitive insight or concept can often turn out to be an unexpected success.

Each of us has more intelligence than we are trained to use and the part that we get graded on in school doesn't amount to much.

To write three series a year you only need to commit to writing 10 pages per day, or editing 50 pages of text per day. Plus, writing is my job, and I need to write to eat, so I'm highly motivated to get up and get to work!

Here's a news flash--writers are selfish people. Truth is, creative types like me are driven by one impulse--to make up a world in which we get to control everything and everyone. We decide who enters and who exits, what the weather will be, who will hook up with whom, who will win and who will lose. It makes us feel powerful and, in all honesty, has relatively little to do with thinking about what will make anyone else happy.

That's also part of having great editors -- they can sort of be honest with you and say, "I see where you're headed with this, but I don't think it's there yet. Dig deeper, babe, and come back with something more." And that's what you do, you dig waaaaaaaay down and you walk around the block eight million times and then you have it -- shazam! And it all comes together in something soooo much better than you thought you were capable of.

Sometimes I think that my best writing comes from exposing my fears and vulnerabilities and hoping that nobody notices it's about me.

Dear Aspiring Author; Write with heart. Put that open, honest, bare soul on paper.

None of my friends knows that most of the sick days I've taken from work are not sick days, but Austen days.

But see, that's the thing about movies. Nothing is left to the imagination. You read a book, and you see a picture of the characters and the scenes in your mind. You don't have that with a movie. It's all either up there on the screen laid out for you, or it isn't there at all.

'The Dance Scene' is basically the most amazing dance show in the world, and it follows me as a creative director. You see how I maintain that creativity.

I've created, directed and choreographed for Lady Gaga since the beginning, so 'Born This Way ' this was musically such an amazing evolution and such a brilliant record. So when she played it for me, it took me a while to find out the visual interpretation that I could give back to her.

When I began to choreograph and find my way pulling other artists' dreams out and changing music in a visual way, there was still a part of me that had something more to say. There was still a desire to rock a stage and ultimately perform the eight count of my dream, but there was a lot of insecurity there.

People need to understand that the Lauryn Hill they were exposed to in the beginning was all that was allowed in that arena at the time. I had to step away for the sake of the machine. I was being way too compromised. I felt uncomfortable having to smile in someone's face when I really didn't like them or know them well enough to like.

As musicians and artists, it's important we have an environment - and I guess when I say environment, I really mean the industry, that really nurtures these gifts. Oftentimes, the machine can overlook the need to take care of the people who produce the sounds that have a lot to do with the health and well-being of society.

It's difficult because we live in a world that doesn't really respect the creative and intellectual contributions of women. It's more like "Oh, you're so cute. Be quiet. Shhh, don't talk too much.

Who in the same given time can produce more than many others, has vigour; who can produce more and better, has talents; who can produce what none else can, has genius.

True genius repeats itself forever, and never repeats itself--one ever varied sense beams novelty and unity on all.

The greatest act of love was to make a tape for someone. It was the only way we could share music and it was also a way of advertising yourself.

Why did girls never play air guitar? Did we sing along because singing was what girls did or was it that girls only sang because they didn't play air guitar? These are not questions I asked myself at the time. I was pushing away such complications.

Song and dance are explosion and interruption, and sometimes the only way to keep up with what's happening.

It's the same with writer's block—a surefire way to break the spell is to begin writing furiously, about anything.

The thing is, even if you start out with a firm resolve and a clear intention, your journal will die a slow death if you write in it only when the spirit moves you.

journal; it's a deeply intimate affair and by far the most private of all writing projects, and no one can or should tell you exactly how to approach it. That would be like advising you on how to bathe or pray—it's really your own deal. I do, however, know what works for me and for lots of other writers, and I have ideas to share.

As Barbara Kingsolver said, "Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, writers will go to stupefying lengths to get the infernal roar of words out of their skulls and onto paper.