Quotes About Creativity

Real" artists are people who have learned to create despite their fears. They

If we are invested in a writing life—as opposed to a writing career—then we are in it for the process and not the product.

Non illegitimi te carborundum, the graffiti in prisoner-of-war camps is said to have run. The rough translation, very important for artists, is "Don't let the bastards get you down." Artists who take this to heart survive and often prevail. The key here is action. Pain that is not used profitably quickly solidifies into a leaden heart, which makes any action difficult.

Art? You just do it. MARTIN RITT

Often, creativity is blocked by our falling in with other people's plans for us. We want to set aside time for our creative work, but we feel we should do something else instead.

It's a luxury to be in the mood to write. It's a blessing but it's not a necessity. Writing is like breathing, it's possible to learn to do it well, but the point is to do it no matter what.

Most of the time when we are blocked in an area of our life, it is because we feel safer that way. We may not be happy, but at least we know what we are—unhappy. Much fear of our own creativity is the fear of the unknown.

Writing is a way not only to metabolize life but to alchemize it as well. It is a way to transform what happens to us in our own experience. It is a way to move from passive to active. We may still be the victims of circumstance, but by our understanding those circumstances we place events within the ongoing context of our own life, that is, the life we own.

When we write from the inside out rather than the outside in, when we write about what most concerns us rather than about what we feel might sell, we often write so well and so persuasively that the market responds to our efforts.

We cannot control the reception of our work. We must find our dignity in the doing.

Without them, our dreams may remain terra incognita. I know mine did. Using them, the light of insight is coupled with the power for expansive

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything. EUGÈNE DELACROIX

Writing goes much better when we don't work at it so much. When we give ourselves permission to just hang out on the page.

The brain enjoys writing. It enjoys the act of naming things, the processes of association and discernment. Picking words is like picking apples: this one looks delicious.

Spending time in solitude with your artist child is essential to self-nurturing.

You are likely to find yourself avoiding your artist dates. Recognize this resistance as a fear of intimacy—self-intimacy

if I had enough time" is the unstated sentence "to hear myself think." In other words, we imagine that if we had time we would quiet our more shallow selves and listen to a deeper flow of inspiration. Again, this is a myth that lets us off the hook—if I wait for enough time to listen, I don't have to listen now, I don't have to take responsibility for being available to what is trying to bubble up today.

No matter what your age or your life path… it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity.

Inspiration may be a form of superconsciousness, or perhaps of subconsciousness—I wouldn't know. But I am sure it is the antithesis of self-consciousness. AARON COPLAND All

The primary imagination I hold to be the Living Power. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE

Wherever you are is the entry point," and this is always true with writing. Wherever you are is always the right place. There is never a need to fix anything, to hitch up the bootstraps of the soul and start at some higher place. Start right where you are.

If we are interested in a writing life - as opposed to a writing career - then we are in it for the process and not the product - for the body of work and not for the quick hit of one well-realised piece.

Mystery is at the heart of creativity.

Making art has taught me that the tiniest smidgen of progress is something to be savored.