Quotes About Creativity

Hysterics are the hallmark of the production of genius. Insults are its common currency.

Art does not die because there is no more art; it dies because there is too much.

Any gloss on authors, their character traits or biographies, hides the fact that only bad writing has an author, good writing does not.

The cultural greenhouse effect: the toxic cloud caused by emissions from millions of museums, galleries, festivals, conferences and symposiums is much more catastrophic than the disappearance of the ozone layer. The asphyxia caused by the activity of thousands of creative brains damages the quality of life more certainly than all the world's industrial pollution. And if no Tokyo Congress has yet managed to control technological pollution, what body could put a brake on cultural nuisance?

The idea that an idea can be stolen from you is meaningless. If it can be stolen from you that is because it is unimportant. If it can be stolen from you, the fact is that it is not yours.

Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo

All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it.

The poet, by composing poems, uses a language that is neither dead nor living, that few people speak, and few people understand … We are the servants of an unknown force that lives within us, manipulates us, and dictates this language to us.

The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth.

Poetry, being elegance itself, cannot hope to achieve visibility. It insists on living its own life.

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things.

Le cinéma, c'est l'écriture moderne dont l'encre est la lumière.

Imitate, and what is personal will eventually come despite yourself.

A film is a petrified fountain of thought.

The obstinate miner of the void exploits his fertile mine

The poet never asks for admiration; he wants to be believed.

I constantly regretted having to cut out bits of intense poetry. But one mustn't, at any cost, be seduced by an attractive idea if it hasn't got its right place.

Si le feu brûlait ma maison, qu'emporterais-je? J'aimerais emporter le feu...

Classifiable things reek of death. You must strike out in other spheres . . . quit the ranks. That's the sign of masterpieces and heroes. An original, that's the person to astonish and to rule.

Listen very carefully to the first criticisms of your work. Note just what it is about your work that the reviewers don't like; it may be the only thing in your work that is original and worthwhile.

Asking an artist to talk about his work is like asking a plant to discuss horticulture.

Il y a dans le dessin une très grande jouissance. L'écriture, c'est le dessin noué autrement. (...) Et quand je dessine, j'écris, et, peut-être, que quand j'ecris, je dessine.

What is style? Saying complicated things in a simple way.

El poeta es un mentiroso que siempre dice la verdad.