Quotes About Creativity

So the mathematician and the artist are companioned in the same dark, and do obeisance to the same gods.

You have a problem, just ask yourself one simple question: What would Ray Charles do in a situation like this?

Forgetfulness is the catalytic germ of spontaneous creativity

Giving a reader a sex scene that is only half right is like giving her half of a kitten. It is not half as cute as a whole kitten; it is a bloody, godawful mess.

A good approach is to allow one dream per novel. Then, in the final revision, go back and get rid of that, too.

it has been demonstrated through years of workshops that the Artist Within tends to make the same mistakes as the artist within everybody else.

El lector espera que seas tú el que tenga algo que decir sobre la vida, porque para eso pagamos a los escritores.

I never abandoned either forms or freedom. I imagine that most of what could be called free verse is in my first book. I got through that fairly early.

A lot happens by accident in poetry.

I sometimes talk about the making of a poem within the poem.

Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time.

I would talk in iambic pentameter if it were easier.

Poetry is a means of seeing invisible things and saying unspeakable things about them.

Outlines can help, but not if you begin with them. If you begin, instead, by writing down everything, by spewing out your ideas as fast as you can type, you will discover the answer to the first question: the fragments you have to work with are the various things you have just written.

write whatever comes into your head, as fast as you can type, without reference to outlines, notes, data, books or any other aids. The object is to find out what you would like to say, what all your earlier work on the topic or project has already led you to believe.

Without fanfare, Starbucks was also going to open two coffee shops in Seattle that were not like any of our existing stores. Each would serve Starbucks coffee but be unique

We also sold books, creating several best sellers and helping to put unknown authors on the map.

criticize by creation, not by finding fault.

I do believe that it takes a strong dose of alienation to make a good artist or writer in the modern world. You can't be too well-adjusted and still have anything interesting to say.

Yes, I believe blue material is funny, but if that's all you've got, you're dead in the water. It's not good.

Most of the things I do are misunderstood. Hey, after all, being misunderstood is the fate of all true geniuses, is it not?

The sense of fancy growing out of the sense of fact—which makes all healthy personalities and gives a touch of romance and glory to all of life—first appears as the unrestrained imaginings of youth.

Taxidermia. Art forms come in many ways, but nothing conveys a psychopathic outlook more then stuffing your dead pet.

On July 26 1916, I announced to all my friends in America that from now on I resolved to write no more poems in the classical language, and to begin my experiments in writing poetry in the so-called vulgar tongue of the people.