Quotes About Creativity

I do look at songwriting as a lot of work. I don't overintellectualize music as a special medium that only some people deserve to do. I think it's something you do if you put the work in.

I would never never read a work of fiction and want to know about the person's life.

It heartens me to think of Verdi who composed thundering operas in his eighties; Michelangelo who did fine work in his ninetieth year, and Titian, who painted better than ever in his one hundredth.

Writing is such a singular and lonely occupation. And it's interesting; all of the work that you create is so singular.

Inevitably in any work you do I think that there is a sense of continuity, and I like that.

Acting isn't something that I think about very consciously, somehow that just doesn't work for me. I just kind of feel my way into it.

The problem with trying to make a film good and have it work for an audience is the problem of trying to tell a story well. The shape or the color of it doesn't matter.

I love to bring humour into my work. Because comedy is not a huge part of the art world. And big-business film takes itself very seriously.

It's basically the best job in the world. If you're fortunate enough - and I consider myself fortunate - you get to work with your friends and you get to work on projects that interest you.

Generally you don't initiate the projects - they're designed and you're inserted. Your material is edited by somebody. You feel a lack of power over your work.

I've always said I'm more influenced in what I do by artists, and how they work, how they think, and the freedom they're given to work and think, than I really am by other writers.

I think as an artist or a writer it's OK to want to control your own work.

Actors want to work with you but they want you to do their thing. Actors, whom I love with a blind partiality, sometimes they want to be soloists in the symphony, not a part of the orchestra.

It's great working with directors and with somebody else's vision.

It's much easier to work on other people's music and play in other people's bands as a guitar player instead of being the main songwriter and singer. That's a really big job to do that.

I play and I've played in heavy bands, but when I write for myself, I don't particularly feel like writing huge rock riffs. It just doesn't work for me and my voice.

I have a number of writers I work with regularly. I write an outline for a book. The outlines are very specific about what each scene is supposed to accomplish.

Any work of art dignifies life.

If you're a writer, you have to be an egomaniac. You have to just believe in yourself, which is hard work.

I'd forgotten how challenging comics can be until I started working on Ropes. Yes, you're restricted by the boundaries of the page, but we all work within technical limitations of some kind.

I'm very ambitious, musically - I want to create great things, not mediocre work.

My advice to women directors is just to make the best work possible.

I often don't go to sleep and work through the night. I can't seem to do my vocal takes if there's light outside. There's a gentleness to the night that leads me in my stride.

Mel Alexenberg offers a scintillating experiment in creativity. His work is an invitation to deepen your spiritual sensibilities as you extend your imagination.