Quotes About Creativity

My biggest fear is mindlessly and stupidly repeating myself.

One of my big goals as a human being is to continue to write what's really happening to me, even if it's a tough pill to swallow for people around me… I do fear that if I ever were to have someone in my life who mattered, I would second-guess every one of my lyrics.

The 'Friday sessions' refer to something that you're not paid for and not supposed to do during your professional life. Curiosity-driven research. Something random, simple, maybe a bit weird – even ridiculous. Without it, there are no discoveries.

When I was in the ninth grade, I had a teacher in Dallas, Texas, named Elizabeth Enlow in English class. Every Friday, we had to write a little essay, and you had to incorporate three particular words into the story. That was the sole direction. And to me, this was so much fun.

You did not disturb Hemingway before noon on Monday through Friday – he was in his office, writing the books that made the lifestyle possible.

Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.

I've always kind of tried to do something that was a little different than just simple 'I love you, baby'-type songs.

I try to make everything I write a little bit different. Those songs that go, 'I love you so much and you love me,' they're boring. If I'm going to write a love song, it's going to be a little bit tortuous.

As a songwriter or artist, there's only so many ways you can say, 'I love you' or 'I think you're beautiful.'

I get off on finding new ways to tell my wife 'I love you.'

The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.

Standardized testing is at cross purposes with many of the most important purposes of public education. It doesn't measure big-picture learning, critical thinking, perseverance, problem solving, creativity or curiosity, yet those are the qualities great teaching brings out in a student.

In most schools, we measure children on what they know. By and large, they have to memorize the content of whatever test is coming up. Because measuring the results of rote learning is easy, rote prevails. What kids know is just not important in comparison with whether they can think.

Mind mapping is a technique based on memory and creativity and comprehension and understanding, so when the student or a child uses the mind map, they are using their brain in the way their brain was designed to be used, and so the mind helps them in all learning and cognitive skills. It simply helps them in what the brain does naturally.

"We are continually faced with great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insolvable problems."

Your personal life, your professional life, and your creative life are all intertwined. I went through a few very difficult years where I felt like a failure. But it was actually really important for me to go through that. Struggle, for me, is the most inspirational thing in the world at the end of the day ~ as long as you treat it that way.

But life is tough and if you're creative, it's tougher.

I think it's not really difficult to write about love. We've been saying the same thing over and over for so many years. But it depends on how honest it is and how good you make it feel. You can say 'I love you' in a trillion ways, and it can always sound different or feel different.

I try to say I love you in a million different ways. That's what I aspire to do. That's what I do best.

"If you want to write, keep cats."

"Making movies is like herding cats."

"The smallest feline is a masterpiece."

"Spring makes its own statement, so loud and clear that the gardener seems to be only one of the instruments, not the composer."

'End of Summer' expands the way I want to express myself as a composer. It's a piece of visual music that has this narrative and conceptual dimension to it.